Transacting via Social Media Interactions

ABSTRACT

Techniques described herein are directed to transacting via social media interactions. In an example, content posted by a first user of a social media service provider and/or response(s) to the content posted by the first user of the social media service can be analyzed by computing system(s) of a payment processing service provider. The response(s) can be associated with second user(s) of the social media service provider. The computing system(s) can determine, based at least in part on the analyzing, an intent of at least the first user or the second user(s) to participate in a transaction for an item depicted in the content and can create a record indicating that item(s) depicted in the content are available for purchase by the second user(s). The record can be created at or near a time that the content is posted by the first user and used for facilitating the transaction.

PRIORITY APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of, and claims priority to, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/583,117, filed on Sep. 25, 2019, whichclaims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/881,806,filed on Aug. 1, 2019, the entire contents of which are incorporated byreference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Social media refers to websites, applications, and other network-basedcommunication tools that are designed to enable users to interact witheach other by both sharing and consuming information quickly,efficiently, and in real-time. Often users leverage social media toolsfor online commerce (“ecommerce”). For instance, a user can post animage of an item he or she is selling to a social media application sothat his or her followers, friends, or other users of the social mediaapplication can offer to purchase the item.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Features of the present disclosure, its nature and various advantages,will be more apparent upon consideration of the following detaileddescription, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment for facilitating transactionsvia social media interactions.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example environment for facilitating transactionsvia social media interactions.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example process for monitoring content posted byusers of a social media platform (availed via a social media serviceprovider) for creating selling opportunities.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example process for monitoring content posted byusers of a social media platform (availed via a social media serviceprovider) for creating selling opportunities.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process for facilitating a transactionresponsive to a user opting to list an item for sale via a social mediaplatform (offered by a social media service provider).

FIG. 6 illustrates an example process for monitoring responses tocontent posted via a social media platform and/or facilitatingtransactions based on such responses.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example process for onboarding a user forfacilitating a transaction via social media interactions.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example process for determining the availabilityof an item leveraging a seller network that is availed via a paymentprocessing service provider.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example process for prioritizing multipleresponses to content depicting item(s) that are for sale.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example graphical user interface (GUI) presentedfor facilitating techniques described herein.

FIG. 11 illustrates another example GUI presented for facilitatingtechniques described herein.

FIG. 12 illustrates another example GUI presented for facilitatingtechniques described herein.

FIG. 13 illustrates another example GUI presented for facilitatingtechniques described herein.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example seller ecosystem for facilitating, amongother things, techniques described herein.

FIG. 15 illustrates additional details associated with individualcomponents of the seller ecosystem described above in FIG. 14 .

In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifiesthe figure in which the reference number first appears. The use of thesame reference numbers in different figures indicates similar oridentical items or features. The drawings are not to scale.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Techniques described herein are directed to transacting via social mediainteractions. For example, a user (e.g., a seller) can post an image,video, or the like (hereinafter “content”) via a social media platform.Such content can depict item(s) (e.g., goods and/or services). In someexamples, the content can be associated with an intent to sell an itemdepicted in the content (e.g., text associated with an image indicatingthat the user is looking to sell an item depicted in the content). Inother examples, the content may not be associated with an intent to sell(e.g., no explicit or implicit indication that the user desires to sellanything depicted in the content).

Other users can respond to the post, for instance via comment,interaction with a button or other actuation mechanism (e.g., like,dislike, funny, love, etc.), and so on. Interested users can provideindicators indicating their desire to purchase item(s) depicted in thecontent. For instance, a user can comment “mine” or “I want to buy that[item].” The responses can be analyzed by a payment processing serviceprovider. The payment processing service provider can identify aninterested user, access payment information for the user, and/or processpayment for the item. That is, the payment processing service providercan facilitate a transaction between the buyer and the seller for anitem depicted in the content posted via the social media platform.

In at least one example, techniques described herein alleviate the needfor users interested in selling via social media platforms to performany action that they usually wouldn't perform prior to posting contentto social media platforms. That is, users interested in selling viasocial media platforms can simply post content to one or more socialmedia platforms and techniques described herein are directed to creatingselling opportunities and facilitating transactions based on suchcontent.

Take for example, a user posts an image of her meal to a social mediaplatform. Techniques described herein would take no action at the timethe image is posted (assuming the user doesn't intend to sell her meal).However, if a user posts an image of a pair of tickets with accompanyingdescriptive text that indicates that the user is interested in sellingthe tickets, techniques described herein can begin to monitor responsesto the post. For instance, a payment processing service provider can usenatural language processing, image recognition, or other machine-trainedmechanisms, to analyze responses to the post. If a response includes anindicator indicating that the user who posted the response desires topurchase the tickets (e.g., “I'll take them!” or the like), the paymentprocessing service provider can access payment information and process atransaction, as described above. In such an example, the paymentprocessing service provider can create a record of the item that is forsale (e.g., the pair of tickets) at or near the same time that the imageis posted. That record can be used to facilitate the transaction, asdescribed below. Thus, in such an example, if a user posts content thatis associated with an intent to sell, the payment processing serviceprovider can create a record of item(s) associated with the content ator near the same time that the content is posted and can monitorresponses to facilitate a transaction. In at least one example, such arecord can be used to generate a dedicated webpage and/or link tofacilitate a transaction and/or can be used to convert the original postinto a post that includes buyable links.

In another example, a user can post an image of her front porch, whichincludes several planters of flowers. In such an example, the user maynot provide any indication that the user intends to sell any of theplanters of flowers (e.g., because she may not intend to sell any of herplanters of flowers at the time the image is posted). As such,techniques described herein would take no action at the time the userposted the image of her front porch (much like the meal exampledescribed above). However, one or more other users may respond to herpost with comments that indicate an intention to purchase an itemdepicted in the image. In such an example, techniques described hereincan begin to monitor such comments and, in some examples, create arecord of the item depicted in the image. That is, based at least inpart on detecting a purchasing intent, the payment processing serviceprovider can create a record of an item depicted in the image. Asdescribed above, in at least one example, such a record can be used togenerate a dedicated webpage and/or link to facilitate a transactionand/or can be used to convert the original post into a post thatincludes buyable links. A variation of this example is also contemplatedhere where the user may identify the planter, but not the doormat thatsits next to it. Through the methods and systems described herein, bothitems can be tagged for sale based on context of the post, and otherdata related to the user. The contextual data indicates whether the userintends to sell, buy, offer for bid, and so on.

In some examples, the payment processing service provider can prompt theuser to list the item for sale prior to creating the record. Forexample, the payment processing service provider can send a notificationto the user (e.g., a computing device associated therewith) informingthe user that there are other user(s) interested in purchasing theplanters. In some examples, such a notification can include the numberof interested users, price(s) offered, or other information indicativeof the extent that other user(s) are interested in purchasing theplanters. Such a notification can be used to incentivize the user tolist the item for sale. The user can respond to the notification,indicating whether she agrees to list the item for sale (or not). Insome examples, the user can indicate that she wants to put the item upfor auction such that the highest bidder can purchase the item. In otherexamples, the user can indicate that she desires to sell to a user whopreviously commented on her post. Regardless, the payment processingservice provider can use the record to facilitate a transaction betweenthe seller and the buyer, as described below.

As described above, the payment processing service provider can identifypurchasing intent of other users and can create a selling opportunityeven when one did not originally exist (e.g., at the time the contentwas posted). That is, if a user posts content that is not associatedwith an intent to sell, the payment processing service provider cannevertheless create a record of item(s) associated with the content atsome time after the content is posted and can monitor responses tofacilitate a transaction.

As described above, users of social media platforms (e.g., websites,applications, and other network-based communication tools provided bysocial media service providers) leverage social media tools for onlinecommerce (“ecommerce”). However, current technology has limitations, asdescribed above. In some examples, a user interested in purchasing anitem posted via social media is required to follow-up with the sellervia another communication tool (e.g., email, text message, privatemessage, etc.) to coordinate the purchase. Such systems introduceunnecessary lag due to response times associated with the users.Furthermore, the current infrastructure does not allow automaticfiltering of the users and puts the onus on the seller on whether toinitiate a conversation with the interested users, engage in a financialtransaction with them, and so on. In other examples, a user is directedto a webpage (usually different from the webpage or platform where theinteraction originated) where the user is then required to add an itemto a virtual cart and provide payment data to complete an onlinetransaction. As such, a social media platform has to establishcommunication interfaces between disparate platforms, for examplebetween a social media platform (that allows interaction between twousers) and a payment platform (that facilitates payment transactions).These communication interfaces have to meet security protocols to allowsecure communications, such as exchange of financial data. Existingtechnology also introduces friction when users intend to purchase itemsvia social media platforms. That is, users—both buyers and sellers—arerequired to perform multiple actions to facilitate a transaction, whichcan include multiple exchanges of communications, multiple clicksthrough multiple web pages, interactions or sign-ups with multipleplatforms, or the like. As such, current technology is inefficient andis not user friendly. Techniques described herein enable frictionless(or near-frictionless) transactions via interactions with social mediacontent. Thus, techniques described herein offer improvements toexisting technology.

In some examples, existing techniques directed to comment selling allowsellers to post images of items available for sale via social mediaplatforms, harvest comments, and turn such comments into invoices.However, in such examples, existing techniques require users to createrecords for items to be sold via social media posts prior to posting theitems via social media platforms. That is, existing techniques requireusers to provide an image, description of the image, quantity available,sizes (if applicable), etc. Such information is used to create contentthat can be posted to a social media platform, with an identifier toidentify a previously created record. Users can comment when they wantto purchase an item and the previously created record can be used tocreate an invoice and facilitate a transaction. That is, existingtechniques require users to perform various actions prior to postingcontent to a social media platform. For instance, sellers are requiredto input a significant amount of information prior to posting content tosocial media platforms. As such, existing techniques require the storageof such content and associated records and introduce unnecessary lag dueto time required to input such information and otherwise set up records.Techniques described herein offer improvements to current technology byalleviating required actions prior to posting content via social mediaplatforms. In at least one example, techniques described herein reducestorage requirements by enabling record(s) of item(s) associated withthe content to be created at some time after the content is posted(e.g., without the seller(s) having implicitly or explicitly indicatedan intent to sell). Furthermore, techniques described herein enableusers to use social media platforms consistent with how social mediaplatforms are intended to be used, without requiring additional actionsto be performed before content is shared. That is, techniques describedherein can alleviate the need for a social media platform to establishcommunication interfaces between disparate platforms yet can offer theability for sellers to sell items via a social media platform usingsecure communications. As such, techniques described herein are directedto improvements over existing technologies.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment 100 for facilitatingtransactions via social media interactions. In FIG. 1 , server(s) 102can be associated with a payment processing service provider, which cancommunicate with user computing devices, such as a seller device 104 anda buyer device 106, via network(s) 108. That is, the seller device 104and the buyer device 106 are network-connected devices that enable endusers (e.g., a seller 110 and a buyer 112, respectively) to accessservices provided by the payment processing service provider (e.g., viathe server(s) 102). Additional details associated with the server(s)102, the user computing devices (e.g., 104, 106), and the network(s) 108are described below with reference to FIGS. 14 and 15 .

In at least one example, the server(s) 102 can include a contentmanagement module 114 and a payment processing module 116. The contentmanagement module 114 can analyze content and associated responses toset-up and/or facilitate transactions. The payment processing module 116can, among other things, process resulting transactions. That is, in atleast one example, the payment processing module 116 can access paymentdata associated with a user, send a request for authorization of thepayment data to a payment service provider, and process a transactionbased on a response from the payment service provider. In otherexamples, the payment processing module 116 can access an accountmaintained by the payment processing service provider and can use fundsassociated with the account to process a transaction. Additional detailsassociated with both the content management module 114 and the paymentprocessing module 116 are described below.

In at least one example, the payment processing service provider canexpose functionality and/or services via one or more APIs 118, therebyenabling functionality and/or services described herein to be integratedinto various functional components of the environment 100. The API(s)118, which can be associated with the server(s) 102, can expose contentmanagement functionality and/or avail payment processing services tovarious functional components associated with the environment 100. Atleast one of the API(s) 118 can be a private API, thereby availingservices and/or functionalities to functional components (e.g.,applications, etc.) that are developed internally (e.g., by developersassociated with the payment processing service provider). At least oneof the API(s) 118 can be an open or public API, which is a publiclyavailable API that provides third-party developers (e.g., social mediaservice providers described herein) with programmatic access to aproprietary software application or web service of the paymentprocessing service provider. That is, the open or public API(s) canenable functionality and/or services of the payment processing serviceprovider to be integrated into social media platforms. The API(s) 118can include sets of requirements that govern how applications, or otherfunctional components, can interact with one another.

In some examples, the payment processing service provider can providethird-party entities with a software developer kit (“SDK”) that mayutilize functionality exposed by the API(s) 118. The SDK can includesoftware development tools that allow a third-party developer (i.e., adeveloper that is separate from the payment processing service provider)to include functionality and/or avail services as descried herein. TheSDK and/or the API(s) 118 may include one or more libraries, programmingcode, executables, other utilities, and documentation that allows adeveloper to directly include functionality and/or avail servicesdescribed herein within an application, such as third-party applicationsproviding social networking services, as described herein.

In at least one example, the server(s) 102 can include, or otherwisehave access to, data store(s) 120. The data store(s) 120 can store,among other types of data, user profiles and inventory records. Forinstance, a user profile of the buyer 112 can store payment dataassociated with payment instrument(s) of the buyer 112. In someexamples, an account maintained by the payment processing serviceprovider on behalf of the buyer 112 can be mapped to, or otherwiseassociated with, the user profile of the buyer 112. Such an account canstore funds received from peer-to-peer payment transactions, depositsfrom employers, transfers from other accounts of the buyer 112, and soon. Additionally or alternatively, a user profile of the seller 110 canbe mapped to, or otherwise associated with, an account of the seller(which can be maintained by the payment processing service provider, abank, or another payment service). Additional details are providedbelow.

As illustrated in FIG. 1 , the seller device 104 is associated with userinterface(s) 122 that enable the seller 110 to interact with the sellerdevice 104. The user interface(s) 122 can be presented via web browsers,applications (e.g., desktop or otherwise dedicated, provided by thepayment processing provider, provided by a third-party, etc.), or thelike to enable the seller 110 to access functionality and/or services asdescribed herein. Similarly, the buyer device 106 can be associated withuser interface(s) 124 which can be presented via web browsers,applications (e.g., desktop or otherwise dedicated, provided by thepayment processing provider, provided by a third-party, etc.), or thelike to enable the buyer 112 to interact with the buyer device 106 andaccess functionality and/or services as described herein.

In at least one example, a user interface of the user interface(s) 122can be presented via a social media platform (e.g., website,application, etc.) associated with a social media service provider.Functionality and/or services of the payment processing service providercan be integrated into the social media platform via the API(s) 118and/or SDKs. In at least one example, the seller 110 can post contentvia the social media platform. In FIG. 1 , the content is an image 126,but in additional or alternative examples, the content can be a video orany other type of content. In at least one example, the buyer 112 canaccess and/or consume the content via a user interface of the userinterface(s) 124 that is presented via the social media platform. Thatis, the seller 110 and the buyer 112 can each access the social mediaplatform via user interfaces presented via their respective devices.

In at least one example, one or more users can respond to content, forexample, via comments (which can include text, images, emojis, etc.),interactions with a button or other actuation mechanism (e.g., like,dislike, funny, love, etc.), and so on. Such responses can be posted innear real-time. For instance, one or more users can respond to the image126 posed by the seller 110. Two comments 128A and 128B are illustratedin FIG. 1 . However, any number of responses can be associated withposted content, such as the image 126.

In at least one example, the content management module 114 can monitorcontent (and associated responses) posted via the social media platform.The content management module 114 can use an automated program that runsover the network(s) 108 (e.g., a “bot,” a web crawler, etc.) and/ornatural language processing, image recognition, and/or othermachine-trained mechanisms to determine whether content posted via thesocial media platform indicates an intent to sell item(s) depicted inthe content. That is, the content management module 114 can utilize themechanisms described above to analyze content (and associated responses)systematically (or not) over time. For the purpose of this discussion, auser “posts” content to a social media platform when the user publishesthe content for other users to consume.

In FIG. 1 , the seller 110 posts the image 126 with the intent to sellan item (e.g., boots) in the image 126. As shown, the seller 110included text indicating that he is moving and is “selling these boots.”In at least one example, when the seller 110 posts the image 126 (e.g.,publishes the image 126 via the social media platform), the contentmanagement module 114 can determine that the seller 110 intends to sellan item in the image 126. In such an example, the seller 110 canexplicitly indicate an intent to sell the item, but the image 126 maynot be associated with any mechanism that enables a buyer to purchasethe item via an interaction with the image 126 (or associated post).That is, the image 126 may not be associated with a direct sell option(e.g., with an actionable link that enables a buyer to purchase item(s)depicted in the image 126) but may be associated with an indirect selloption (e.g., comment or other indicator that the seller 110 desires tosell item(s) depicted in the image 126).

Based at least in part on determining that the image 126 is associatedwith an intent to sell an item depicted in the image 126, the contentmanagement module 114 can create a record for the item (e.g., at or nearthe same time that the image 126 is posted). In some examples, thecontent management module 114 can prompt the seller 110 to confirm thatthe seller 110 desires to sell the item and/or consents to the creationof the record before creating the record. The record can be stored inthe data store(s) 120 and can be used to facilitate a transaction forthe item, as described below. In at least one example, such a record canbe used to generate a dedicated webpage and/or link to facilitate atransaction and/or can be used to convert the original post into a postthat includes buyable links.

In some examples, the content management module 114 can auto-populate atleast a portion of information at the time the record is created. Forexample, the content management module 114 can auto-populate informationassociated with characteristics of the item (e.g., size, color,condition, brand, etc.), which, in some examples, can be based on animage search and/or searches of marketplace(s) where other seller(s),which can be similar to the seller 110 (or not), are selling the item.In some examples, such information can be generated usingmachine-trained mechanisms, for example, based at least in part onselling activities of the seller 110 and/or other sellers similar to theseller 110. In at least one example, the content management module 114can prompt the seller 110 for information at the time the record iscreated. For instance, the content management module 114 can requestinformation associated with characteristics of the item (e.g., size,color, condition, brand, etc.). Furthermore, the content managementmodule 114 can ask the seller 110 whether the seller 110 is looking tosell the item for a particular price (e.g., a minimum price, a fixedprice, etc.) or wants to start an auction (e.g., allow users to placebids). In some examples, the content management module 114 can promptthe seller 110 for a period of time for selling the item (e.g., afterwhich the item is no longer to be listed for sale). The contentmanagement module 114 can update the record based at least in part oninformation provided by the seller 110. That is, the record becomes aninventory record for the item. In some examples, the content managementmodule 114 can edit the content to provide additional informationassociated with the item (e.g., based at least in part on informationprovided by the seller 110). In at least one example, the contentmanagement module 114 can edit the content to provide an instructionregarding a particular indicator to use to purchase the item (e.g., aparticular word, image, emoji, etc.), a cost of the item, a length oftime the item will be available for sale, and the like. In someexamples, the content management module 114 can add a response includingsuch instructions (in addition to, or instead of, editing the contentitself). Of note, however, techniques described herein can beimplemented with or without additional information provided by theseller 110.

After the record is created, which can be at the same time the contentis posted or shortly thereafter, the content management module 114 canmonitor responses to the posted content to determine whether suchresponses include indicator(s) that indicate that other users desire topurchase item(s) in the content (e.g., the image 126). In some examples,the indicator can be prescribed (e.g., comment “mine” to indicate adesire to purchase the item) and the content management module 114 cananalyze responses to identify the prescribed indicator. In otherexamples, the content management module 114 can analyze the responsesusing natural language processing, image recognition, and/or othermachine-trained mechanisms to determine whether any of the responses areassociated with an indicator indicating that another user desires topurchase the item. The indicators need not be the same. That is, anyindicator indicating the desire of other users to purchase the item canbe sufficient for determining that other users are interested inpurchasing the item. In the example provided in FIG. 1 , a first user(e.g., U₁) responded to the image 126 with “I'll take them!” and asecond user (e.g., U₂) responded with “I'll pay $75 for those boots.”For the purpose of this example, the buyer 112 can be the first user.That is, the buyer 112 can interact with the user interface availed viathe social media platform to respond to the seller's 110 post.

In at least one example, the content management module 114 can determinethat both comment 128A and comment 128B indicate a desire to purchasethe item. In some examples, the content management module 114 canutilize a first-in-time rule such that the first user to respondreceives the first opportunity to purchase the item. In other examples,the content management module 114 can utilize one or more other criteriato rank (or otherwise prioritize) responding users. Additional detailsare provided below.

For the purpose of this example, the content management module 114 canutilize the first-in-time rule such that the buyer 112 has the firstopportunity to purchase the item. Responsive to the content managementmodule 114 determining that the comment 128A includes an intent topurchase, the content management module 114 can transmit an indicationof a transaction to the payment processing module 116.

In some examples, the seller 110 may not have an account with thepayment processing service provider. For instance, in at least oneexample, the content management module 114 can analyze hashtags or othertypes of metadata tags that enable other users to easily find responseswith a specific theme, subject, or content. In at least one example, thecontent management module 114 can identify content to which techniquesdescribed herein are applicable. In such an example, a seller may not beassociated with the payment processing service provider. In exampleswhere the seller 110 is not already onboarded with the paymentprocessing service provider, the payment processing module 116 mayprompt the seller 110 to provide information to the payment processingmodule 116 to at least temporarily onboard the seller 110 (e.g., createa user profile for the seller 110). In at least one example, the paymentprocessing module 116 can enable the seller 110 to perform transactionsuntil a threshold is satisfied (e.g., a number of transactions, a dollaramount, etc.). If the seller 110 has not fully onboarded by the time thethreshold is satisfied, the payment processing module 116 can requestthe seller 110 to provide additional information before the seller 110can further use the payment processing service provider. In any event,the payment processing module 116 can access information associated withthe seller 110 to initiate the transaction.

In at least one example, the buyer 112 can store payment data in a userprofile in the data store(s) 120. In such an example, the paymentprocessing module 116 can utilize the payment data for processing thetransaction. That is, in at least one example, the payment processingmodule 116 can identify the user (e.g., the buyer 112) associated withthe comment 128A and can determine whether the user is associated with auser profile in the data store(s) 120. In some examples, the paymentprocessing module 116 can identify the user (e.g., the buyer 112) basedon personal information that has been permissibly shared between thesocial media service provider and the payment processing serviceprovider (e.g., name, email address, phone number, etc.) and/or personalinformation shared by the user (e.g., the buyer 112). In a non-limitingexample, the user can tag their response with a hashtag or othermetadata tag that uniquely identifies the user, and the presence of sucha tag can be used to identify the user. If the buyer 112 is associatedwith a user profile in the data store(s) 120, the payment processingmodule 116 can then initiate a transaction. That is, the paymentprocessing module 116 can access payment data associated with the buyer112 and process the transaction using the payment data (and informationassociated with the record).

In an alternative example, the buyer 112 may not have a user profile inthe data store(s) 120 and/or payment data associated with a user profilein the data store(s) 120 is missing, incomplete, or otherwise unusable.In such an example, the payment processing module 116 can send a requestfor payment information to the buyer device 106. Responsive to the buyer112 providing payment data, the payment processing module 116 canprocess the transaction using the payment data (and informationassociated with the record). In examples where additional information isrequired to process the transaction (e.g., price), the paymentprocessing module 116 can facilitate communications between the seller110 and the buyer 112 to obtain the additional information forprocessing the transaction.

In at least one example, the content management module 114 can reservethe item for the buyer 112 for a predetermined period of time afterwhich, if the buyer 112 has not purchased the item, the contentmanagement module 114 can offer the item to a different user. Forinstance, if the buyer 112 does not purchase the item by the time thepredetermined period of time lapses, the content management module 114can select another responding user to whom to offer the item.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example environment 200 for facilitatingtransactions via social media interactions. The environment 200comprises the same or similar devices as the environment 100 in FIG. 1 .That is, the environment 200 can include the server(s) 102, the sellerdevice 104, the buyer device 106, the network(s) 108, and so on. In FIG.2 , however, the seller 110 can post content, such as image 202, withoutan intention to sell item(s) depicted in the image 202. In such anexample, the content management module 114 can refrain from creating arecord when the image 202 is posted. As such, the image 202 may not beassociated with a direct sell option (e.g., with an actionable link thatenables a buyer to purchase item(s) depicted in the image 202) and/or anindirect sell option (e.g., comment or other indicator that the seller110 desires to sell item(s) depicted in the image 202).

As described above, in at least one example, the content managementmodule 114 can monitor responses to content posted via the social mediaplatform. In at least one example, the content management module 114 canuse an automated program that runs over the network(s) 108 (e.g., a“bot,” a web crawler, etc.) and/or natural language processing, imagerecognition, and/or other machine-trained mechanisms to determine whichitem(s) are of interest to responding users whether such responsesindicate intent to purchase item(s) depicted in the content. In someexamples, users can respond to content (e.g., via comment, an actionassociated with a button or other actuation mechanism, etc.) using anindicator indicating that users desire to purchase item(s) in thecontent, such as the image 202. In some examples, content can depictmultiple items. In such examples, the content management module 114 canutilize natural language processing, image recognition, and/or othermachine-trained mechanisms to determine which item(s) are of interest toresponding users. For example, the image 202 depicts a person wearing ahat, a coat, a top, pants, and boots. The content management module 114can utilize image recognition to identify each of the items in the image202. The comments 204A and 204B both reference “boots.” As such, thecontent management module 114 can utilize natural language processing todetermine that the responding users are interested in purchasing the“boots” depicted in the image 202.

In the case of video content, the content management module 114 canutilize additional or alternative information such as a timestamp toidentify which item(s) are of interest to a responding user. Forinstance, a timestamp of a response can be compared to a timestamp in avideo to determine which item(s) were presented at that timestamp.Additional or alternative means for identifying item(s) in content arewithin the scope of this disclosure.

In at least one example, the content management module 114 can send anotification to the seller 110 to indicate to the seller 110 that otherusers are interested in purchasing item(s) in content posted by theseller 110, for example, the seller's 110 boots in FIG. 2 . In someexamples, the content management module 114 can refrain from sending anotification to the seller 110 until a threshold number of responsesindicate an interest in purchasing the item(s) (e.g., the boots).Additionally or alternatively, the content management module 114 canrefrain from sending a notification to the seller 110 until a price thatmeets or exceeds a threshold is proposed by a buyer 112. The seller 110can respond to the notification with an indication of whether or not theseller 110 desires to list the item(s) (e.g., boots) for sale. Based atleast in part on the seller 110 indicating a desire to list the item(s)(e.g., boots) for sale, the content management module 114 can create arecord for the item. As described above, the record can be created at ornear the time the image 202 is posted by the seller 110. The record canbe stored in the data store(s) 120 and can be used to facilitate atransaction for the item, as described above. As described above, in atleast one example, such a record can be used to generate a dedicatedwebpage and/or link to facilitate a transaction and/or can be used toconvert the original post into a post that includes buyable links.

As described above, in some examples, the content management module 114can auto-populate at least a portion of information at the time therecord is created. For example, the content management module 114 canauto-populate information associated with characteristics of the item(e.g., size, color, condition, brand, etc.), which, in some examples,can be based on an image search and/or searches of marketplace(s) whereother seller(s), which may be similar to the original seller (or not),are selling the item. In some examples, such information can begenerated using machine-trained mechanisms, for example, based at leastin part on selling activities of the seller 110 and/or other sellerssimilar to the seller 110. In additional or alternative examples, thecontent management module 114 can prompt the seller 110 for informationat the time the record is created. For instance, the content managementmodule 114 can request information associated with characteristics ofthe item (e.g., size, color, condition, brand, etc.). Furthermore, thecontent management module 114 can ask the seller 110 whether the seller110 is looking for a particular price (e.g., minimum price, fixed price,etc.) or wants to start an auction (e.g., allow users to place bids). Insome examples, the content management module 114 can prompt the seller110 for a period of time for selling the item (e.g., after which theitem is no longer to be listed for sale). The content management module114 can update the record based at least in part on information providedby the seller 110. That is, the record becomes an inventory record forthe item. In some examples, the content management module 114 can editthe content to provide additional information associated with the item(e.g., based at least in part on information provided by the seller110). In at least one example, the content management module 114 canedit the content to provide an instruction regarding a particularindicator to use to purchase the item (e.g., a particular word, image,emoji, etc.), a cost of the item, a length of time the item will beavailable for sale, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, thecontent management module 114 can add a response providing the same orsimilar instructions. Of note, however, techniques described herein canbe implemented with or without additional information provided by theseller 110.

In some examples, the seller 110 can opt to sell the item to a user thathas already responded to the post of the image 202. For example, thefirst user to respond may receive the first offer to purchase the itemand/or a user who has offered a highest price may receive the firstoffer to purchase the item. In FIG. 2 , the first user (e.g., U₁) is thefirst to respond and the second user (e.g., U2) offered the highestprice between comments 204A and 204B. In such examples, the contentmanagement module 114 can select a response, identify a user associatedwith the selected response, and transmit an indication of a transactionto the payment processing module 116. The payment processing module 116can then initiate a transaction, as described above with reference toFIG. 1 .

In other examples, the seller 110 can opt to list the item and allowadditional users to respond to the listing, for example, via a newresponse or an updated response. In such examples, the contentmanagement module 114 can monitor additional responses. That is, thecontent management module 114 can analyze the additional responses(which can include new responses or updated responses) can use anautomated program that runs over the network(s) 108 (e.g., a “bot,” aweb crawler, etc.) and/or natural language processing, imagerecognition, and/or other machine-trained mechanisms to determinewhether any of the additional responses are associated with an indicatorindicating that another user desires to purchase the item.

In at least one example, the content management module 114 can determinethat a response, such as comment 204A includes an indicator indicating adesire to purchase the item(s) in the content (e.g., the boots). In suchan example, the content management module 114 can select a response,identify a user associated with the selected response, and transmit anindication of a transaction to the payment processing module 116. Thepayment processing module 116 can then initiate a transaction, asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 1 .

FIGS. 1 and 2 both enable a user to post content via a social mediaplatform and turn the content into a selling opportunity (e.g., viaintegration of the payment processing service provider into the socialmedia platform). As described above, in both examples, the paymentprocessing service provider (e.g., the content management module 114)can create a record for an item depicted in a content item at or nearthe time the content is posted to the social media platform. The postinguser (e.g., the seller 110) need not indicate an intent to sell and/orprovide a mechanism through which other users (e.g., the buyer 112) canpurchase the item at the time the posting user posts the content,although the posting user can do so.

That is, as described above, techniques described herein offerimprovements to current technology by alleviating required actions priorto posting content via social media platforms. As such, techniquesdescribed herein reduce storage requirements by enabling record(s) ofitem(s) associated with the content to be created at some time after thecontent is posted (e.g., without the seller(s) having implicitly orexplicitly indicated an intent to sell). Furthermore, techniquesdescribed herein enable users to use social media platforms consistentwith how social media platforms are intended to be used, withoutrequiring additional actions to be performed before content is shared.That is, techniques described herein can alleviate the need for a socialmedia platform to establish communication interfaces between disparateplatforms yet can offer the ability for sellers to sell items via asocial media platform using secure communications. As such, techniquesdescribed herein are directed to improvements over existingtechnologies.

In some examples, a user can post content with an intent to sell an itemdepicted in the content, but another user identifies another itemdepicted in the content that they are interested in purchasing. That is,an image may be associated with a direct sell option (e.g., with anactionable link that enables a buyer to purchase item(s) depicted in theimage) and/or an indirect sell option (e.g., comment or other indicatorthat the seller desires to sell item(s) depicted in the image).Nevertheless, another user can identify an item in the image (that isneither associated with the direct sell option nor the indirect selloption) that the other user desires to purchase. In such examples,techniques described with reference to FIG. 2 can be implemented despitethe fact that the user posted content with an intent to sell initially.That is, in some examples, techniques described above with reference toFIGS. 1 and 2 can be integrated.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are directed to posting content via a single social mediaplatform wherein the payment processing service provider is integratedvia the APIs 118 and/or SDKs. However, in some examples, users can postcontent to multiple social media platforms (in which the paymentprocessing service provider is integrated) and techniques describedherein can provide the same functionality and/or services on each socialmedia platform. That is, the seller 110 can post the image 126 or theimage 202 via multiple social media platforms at or near the same time.In such examples, the payment processing service provider can monitorresponses across the multiple social media platforms to enabletransactions via social network interactions. Furthermore, while FIGS. 1and 2 , and the discussion below, describes techniques as they areapplicable to social media platforms, techniques described herein can bedirected to any platform where two users interact, including, but notlimited to, text platforms, email platforms, news aggregation platforms,web discussion platforms, etc.

While FIGS. 1 and 2 , and the description below, refer to “selling”opportunities between buyers and sellers, techniques described hereincan be applicable to any type of transactions between two users. Thatis, techniques described herein can be utilized for identifyingopportunities to lease, borrow, trade, lend, or otherwise transferitem(s) between users. Furthermore, techniques described herein can beutilized for other transactions, such as scheduling appointments,requesting additional information, and the like. For instance, users canrespond to a post with an indicator indicating an intent to schedule anappointment, a request for additional information, and the like. Thepayment processing service provider can facilitate the scheduling of theappointment, provisioning of additional information, and the like.

Furthermore, while FIGS. 1 and 2 refer to the seller 110 and the buyer112, both the seller 110 and the buyer 112 can be buyers and/or sellersat any time. That is, both the seller 110 and the buyer 112 are users inthe environments 100 and 200, and are not limited to being sellers andbuyers, respectively. While “intent to sell” and “desire topurchase”/“intent to purchase” are used herein to describe an intentionof seller(s) and buyer(s), respectively; such intents can indicate anintent of the seller(s) and/or the buyer(s) to participate intransaction(s) as such intentions relate to content posted by suchseller(s).

Moreover, while FIGS. 1 and 2 are directed to examples where the seller110 does not post content with a sell option, such as an actionable linkto purchase an item depicted in the content (e.g., image 126 and/orimage 202), techniques described can be applicable to suchimplementations. That is, in some examples, techniques described hereincan identify additional or alternative selling opportunities in contentposted to a social media platform and can enable buyers to purchaseitems so identified via techniques described herein.

FIGS. 3-9 are flowcharts showing example methods involving techniques asdescribed herein. The methods illustrated in FIGS. 3-9 are describedwith reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 14 , and 15 for convenience and ease ofunderstanding. However, the methods illustrated in FIGS. 3-9 are notlimited to being performed using components described in FIGS. 1, 2, 14, and 15, and such components are not limited to performing the methodsillustrated in FIGS. 3-9 .

The methods 300-900 are illustrated as collections of blocks in logicalflow graphs, which represent sequences of operations that can beimplemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. In thecontext of software, the blocks represent computer-executableinstructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media that,when executed by processor(s), perform the recited operations.Generally, computer-executable instructions include routines, programs,objects, components, data structures, and the like that performparticular functions or implement particular abstract data types. Theorder in which the operations are described is not intended to beconstrued as a limitation, and any number of the described blocks can becombined in any order and/or in parallel to implement the processes. Insome embodiments, one or more blocks of the process can be omittedentirely. Moreover, the methods 300-900 can be combined in whole or inpart with each other or with other methods.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example process 300 for monitoring content postedby users of a social media platform (availed via a social media serviceprovider) for creating selling opportunities.

Block 302 illustrates monitoring content posted by a first user via asocial media platform. In at least one example, users of a social mediaplatform can create and/or present content via the social mediaplatform. For instance, the seller 110 can interact with a userinterface of the user interface(s) 122 that is availed via the socialmedia platform to post content to the social media platform. Asdescribed above, a first user “posts” content to a social media platformwhen the first user publishes the content for other users to consume. Inat least one example, the content management module 114 can monitorcontent posted by the first user (and multiple other users) via thesocial media platform. In some examples, the content management module114 can utilize an automated program that runs over the network(s) 108(e.g., a “bot,” a web crawler, etc.) to monitor content posed by usersof the social media platform. In additional or alternative examples, thecontent management module 114 can use natural language processing, imagerecognition, and/or other machine-trained mechanisms to monitor contentposed by users of the social media platform.

Block 304 illustrates determining whether the content is associated withan intent to sell. In at least one example, the content managementmodule 114 can analyze content to determine whether the content itselfis associated with an intent to sell or whether information associatedwith the content indicates an intent to sell. In at least one example, aseller can post content with a sell option (e.g., an actionable link topurchase item(s) via an interaction with the content), which canindicate that such item(s) are for sale. Posting such content can be anexplicit indication that a seller desires to sell an item. However, if aseller does not include a sell option with content when such content isposted, the content management module 114 can analyze the content todetermine whether the content is associated with an intent to sell,which can be an implicit indicator that the seller desires to sell theitem(s) depicted in the content. That is, content can be associated withan intent to sell if the content includes explicit indicators that theseller desires to sell item(s) depicted in the content, but there is nota sell option associated with the content. For instance, content can bea video where a first user indicates that he or she is selling ticketsto an event, but without providing an option to complete the purchase.In such an example, the content management module 114 can determine thatthe content is associated with an intent to sell. In an additional oralternative example, a first user can post an image that is accompaniedby text indicating that the first user is selling item(s) in the image.In some examples, neither the content, nor information associatedtherewith, indicates any intention to sell.

In some examples, the content management module 114 can utilizemachine-trained mechanism(s) to determine whether content is associatedwith an intent to sell. For instance, in such examples, the contentmanagement module 114 can determine whether other users of the paymentprocessing service provider, which can be similar to the first user (ornot), are selling item(s) depicted in the content. If other users areselling such item(s), the content management module 114 can determinethat the first user is also intending to sell such item(s). Moreover,the content management module 114 can utilize seasonality as a signal indetermining whether content is associated with an intent to sell. Forexample, if content depicts an item at an end of a season for using anitem, the content management module 114 can determine that the contentis associated with an intent to sell. Furthermore, in some examples, thecontent management module 114 can utilize the number of items depictedin content to determine whether the content is associated with an intentto sell. In at least one example, the content management module 114 canutilize signals as described above, in addition to results of naturallanguage processing, image recognition, etc., to determine a score orother metric indicative of whether content is associated with an intentto sell. In such an example, if the score or other metric meets orexceeds a threshold, the content management module 114 can determinethat the content is associated with an intent to sell. However, if thescore or other metric does not meet or exceed the threshold, the contentmanagement module 114 can determine that the content is not associatedwith an intent to sell.

If the content is associated with an intent to sell, the contentmanagement module 114 can create a record indicating that the item isavailable for sale, as illustrated in block 306. In at least oneexample, the record can be created at or near the same time that thecontent is posed to the social media platform. In at least one example,such a record can be used to generate a dedicated webpage and/or link tofacilitate a transaction and/or can be used to convert the original postinto a post that includes buyable links. In some examples, the contentmanagement module 114 can prompt the seller 110 to confirm that theseller 110 desires to sell the item and/or consents to the creation ofthe record before creating the record.

In some examples, the content management module 114 can auto-populate atleast a portion of information at the time the record is created. Forexample, the content management module 114 can auto-populate informationassociated with characteristics of the item (e.g., size, color,condition, brand, etc.), which, in some examples, can be based on animage search and/or searches of marketplace(s) where other seller(s),which can be similar to the first user (or not), are selling the item.In some examples, such information can be generated usingmachine-trained mechanisms, for example, based at least in part onselling activities of the seller 110 and/or other sellers similar to theseller 110. In at least one example, the content management module 114can prompt the first user for information at the time the record iscreated. For instance, the content management module 114 can requestinformation associated with characteristics of the item (e.g., size,color, condition, brand, etc.). Furthermore, the content managementmodule 114 can ask the first user whether the first user is looking tosell the item for a particular price (e.g., a minimum price, a fixedprice, etc.) or wants to start an auction (e.g., allow users to placebids). In some examples, the content management module 114 can promptthe first user for a period of time for selling the item (e.g., afterwhich the item is no longer to be listed for sale). The contentmanagement module 114 can update the record based at least in part oninformation provided by the first user. That is, the record becomes aninventory record for the item.

Based at least in part on creating the record, the content managementmodule 114 can monitor response(s) to the content, as illustrated inblock 308. After the record is created, which can be at the same timethe content is posted or shortly thereafter, the content managementmodule 114 can monitor responses to the posted content. As describedabove, other users can respond to the post, for instance via comment,interaction with a button or other actuation mechanism (e.g., like,dislike, funny, love, etc.), and so on. Interested users can provideindicators indicating their desire to purchase item(s) depicted in thecontent. In some examples, the indicator can be prescribed (e.g.,comment “mine” to indicate a desire to purchase the item). In otherexamples, the indicator need not be prescribed, and intent can beinferred using natural language processing, image recognition, and/orother machine-trained mechanisms.

In at least one example, the content management module 114 can analyzeresponses utilizing an automated program that runs over the network(s)108 (e.g., a “bot,” a web crawler, etc.) to determine whether responsesindicate an intent to purchase item(s) depicted in the content. Inadditional or alternative examples, the content management module 114can analyze the responses using natural language processing, imagerecognition, and/or other machine-trained mechanisms to determinewhether any of the responses are associated with an indicator indicatingthat another user desires to purchase the item.

If the content is not associated with an intent to sell, process 300 cancontinue as described in FIG. 4 , below.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example process 400 for monitoring content postedby users of a social media platform (availed via a social media serviceprovider) for creating selling opportunities.

Block 402 illustrates monitoring response(s) to content posted by afirst user via a social media platform. As described above, in at leastone example, the content management module 114 can monitor responses tocontent posted via the social media platform using an automated programthat runs over the network(s) 108 (e.g., a “bot,” a web crawler, etc.)and/or natural language processing, image recognition, and/or othermachine-trained mechanisms to determine whether such responses indicateintent to purchase item(s) depicted in the content. In some examples,users can respond to content (e.g., via comment, an action associatedwith a button or other actuation mechanism, etc.) using an indicatorindicating that users desire to purchase item(s) in the content. In someexamples, content can depict multiple items. In such examples, thecontent management module 114 can utilize natural language processing,image recognition, and/or other machine-trained mechanisms to determinewhich item(s) are of interest to responding users.

Block 404 illustrates determining whether the response(s) satisfy one ormore criteria. In at least one example, the content management module114 can determine whether the response(s) satisfy one or more criteria.In at least one example, a criterion can require that a response includean intent to purchase an item in the content (e.g., a response includesan indicator indicating a desire of a first user to purchase an item inthe content). In additional or alternative examples, a criterion canrequire that a number of responses indicating a desire to purchase anitem meet or exceed a threshold. Moreover, in at least one example, acriterion can require that at least one response offers a price thatmeets or exceeds a threshold. In some examples, the one or more criteriacan be set by the payment processing service provider. In additional oralternative examples, the one or more criteria can be set by the postinguser (e.g., the seller) or by other similar posting users.

If the response(s) do not satisfy the one or more criteria, process 400can return to block 402 to continue monitoring response(s) to contentposted by the first user (and other users) of the social media platform.

Block 406 illustrates sending a notification to the first userindicating that other user(s) desire to purchase an item depicted in thecontent. In at least one example, based at least in part on theresponse(s) satisfying one or more criteria, the content managementmodule 114 can send a notification to the first user to indicate to thefirst user that other users are interested in purchasing item(s) incontent posted by the first user. For instance, the content managementmodule 114 can send an email, text message, direct message, etc. to theposting user (e.g., the seller). In some examples, such a notificationcan include the number of interested users, price(s) offered, or otherinformation indicative of the extent that other user(s) are interestedin purchasing the item. In some examples, the notification can includeadditional or alternative information, such as a price differential(e.g., between what an item sold for brand new and what an item iscurrently selling for on one or more marketplaces), price patterns,price predictions, current availability of an item, availabilitypatterns, availability predictions, etc. Such a notification can be usedto incentivize the first user to list the item for sale. In someexamples, the notification can include a button or other actuationmechanism that enables the first user to agree to list the item for saleand a button or other actuation mechanism that enables the first user toindicate that he or she does not desire to list the item for sale. Insome examples, the notification can be time sensitive such that after alapse of a predetermined period of time, the failure of the first userto respond can indicate that the first user does not desire to list theitem for sale.

Block 408 illustrates determining whether the first user agrees to listthe item for sale. The content management module 114 can analyze aresponse from the first user (e.g., a device associated therewith) todetermine whether the first user agrees to list the item for sale. Basedat least in part on the first user indicating a desire to list theitem(s) for sale, the content management module 114 can create a recordfor the item, as illustrated in block 410. That is, in at least oneexample, a record can be created at some time after the content isposted and response(s) to the content are such that they satisfy one ormore criteria. The record can be stored in the data store(s) 120 and canbe used to facilitate a transaction for the item, as described above. Insome examples, the content management module 114 can prompt the seller110 to confirm that the seller 110 desires to sell the item and/orconsents to the creation of the record before creating the record. Asdescribed above, in at least one example, such a record can be used togenerate a dedicated webpage and/or link to facilitate a transactionand/or can be used to convert the original post into a post thatincludes buyable links.

In some examples, the content management module 114 can auto-populate atleast a portion of information at the time the record is created. Forexample, the content management module 114 can auto-populate informationassociated with characteristics of the item (e.g., size, color,condition, brand, etc.), which, in some examples, can be based on animage search and/or searches of marketplace(s) where other seller(s),which can be similar to the first user (or not), are selling the item.In some examples, such information can be generated usingmachine-trained mechanisms, for example, based at least in part onselling activities of the seller 110 and/or other sellers similar to theseller 110. In at least one example, the content management module 114can prompt the first user for information at the time the record iscreated. For instance, the content management module 114 can requestinformation associated with characteristics of the item (e.g., size,color, condition, brand, etc.). Furthermore, the content managementmodule 114 can ask the first user whether the first user is looking tosell the item for a particular price (e.g., a minimum price, a fixedprice, etc.) or wants to start an auction (e.g., allow users to placebids). In some examples, the content management module 114 can promptthe first user for a period of time for selling the item (e.g., afterwhich the item is no longer to be listed for sale). The contentmanagement module 114 can update the record based at least in part oninformation provided by the first user. That is, the record becomes aninventory record for the item. In at least one example, process 400 canproceed via process 500, described below with reference to FIG. 5 .

Block 412, which can be optional, illustrates editing the content. Insome examples, the content management module 114 can edit the content toprovide additional information associated with the item (e.g., based atleast in part on information provided by the first user and/orauto-populated, as described above). In at least one example, thecontent management module 114 can edit the content to provide aninstruction regarding a particular indicator to use to purchase the item(e.g., a particular word, image, emoji, etc.), a cost of the item, alength of time the item will be available for sale, and the like. Asdescribed above, in additional or alternative examples, the contentmanagement module 114 can add a response to the content that includessuch instructions. Furthermore, in some examples, the content managementmodule 114 can convert the original post into a post that includesbuyable links based at least in part on the record and/or informationassociated therewith.

If the first user does not agree to list the item for sale, the contentmanagement module 114 can refrain from taking any action, as illustratedin block 414.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process 500 for facilitating a transactionresponsive to a first user opting to list an item for sale via a socialmedia platform (offered by a social media service provider).

Block 502 illustrates determining whether the first user wants to sellan item to a second user associated with a previous response. Responsiveto opting to list an item for sale (based on interest determined fromresponses to content depicting the item), a first user can determinewhether he or she intends to sell the item to another user who hasalready responded to their post, or to another user. That is, in someexamples, the first user can opt to sell an item to another user thathas already responded to the post of the content. For example, the first(in time) user to respond may receive the first offer to purchase theitem and/or another user who has offered a highest price may receive thefirst offer to purchase the item.

In other examples, the first user can opt to list the item and allowadditional users to respond to the listing, for example, via a newresponse or an updated response. For example, the first user may decideto wait to see if the first user can get a better price for the itemafter listing the item for sale. Or, the first user may be interested insetting up an auction. In some examples, the first user can interactwith a first user interface of the first user interface(s) 122 toindicate whether the first user desires to sell the item to a first userthat has already responded or to list the item to solicit one or moreadditional responses and/or can provide such an indication inassociation with the response to the notification described above.Example graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for facilitating such aredescribed below.

If the user opts to sell the item to a second user associated with aprevious response, the content management module 114 can determine thesecond user to whom to sell the item, as illustrated in block 504. Thecontent management module 114 can rank, or otherwise establish apriority, among multiple responses based at least in part on one or morecriteria. For instance, responses can be ranked based on time, such thata first-in-time response is prioritized over a later-in-time response.Additionally or alternatively, responses can be ranked based on bids(e.g., prices offered to purchase the item) such that a higher-value bidis prioritized over a lower-value bid. Furthermore, responses can beranked based on credibility of the users associated with such responses.For instance, responses from users that are known to be associated witha robot or fraudulent users can be ranked below responses from usersthat are validated (e.g., based on prior transaction history). Moreover,the content management module 114 can rank responses from users that areknown to respond to posted content but that fail to completetransactions (e.g., more than a threshold amount of time or per someother metric) below responses from users that are known to completetransactions (e.g., conversion rate). Various other criterion can beused to rank responses including but not limited to creditworthiness,whether or not payment data is already on-file, how many items a userhas previously purchased and/or intends to purchase, and so on. In atleast one example, the content management module 114 can rank responsesusing a machine-trained mechanism, for example, based at least in parton past and present transactions, or other interactions, as describedabove.

In at least one example, the content management module 114 can select ahighest-ranking response and can determine to offer the item forpurchase to a user associated with the highest-ranking response. Asdescribed above, in some examples, the highest-ranking response can bethe first-in-time response. In additional or alternative examples, thehighest-ranking response can be a response associated with the highestbid, sequence in virtual line, past interactions with the seller (e.g.,buyers tagged as preferred or verified buyers), etc. In at least oneexample, a highest-ranking response can be associated with a score thatcan be a highest-value score or a score that meets or exceeds athreshold. In some examples, the content management module 114 canidentify a user associated with the selected response and transmit anindication of a transaction to the payment processing module 116.

Block 506 illustrates accessing payment data from the second user. In atleast one example, the second user can store payment data in a userprofile in the data store(s) 120. In such an example, the paymentprocessing module 116 can utilize the payment data for processing thetransaction. That is, in at least one example, the payment processingmodule 116 can identify the user (e.g., the second user) associated witha response and can determine whether the user is associated with a userprofile in the data store(s) 120. In some examples, the paymentprocessing module 116 can identify the user based on personalinformation that has been permissibly shared between the social mediaservice provider and the payment processing service provider (e.g.,name, email address, phone number, etc.) and/or personal informationshared by the user. In a non-limiting example, the second user can tagtheir response with a hashtag or other metadata tag that uniquelyidentifies the second user, and the presence of such a tag can be usedto identify the second user. If the second user is associated with auser profile in the data store(s) 120, the payment processing module 116can then initiate a transaction. That is, the payment processing module116 can access payment data associated with the second user and processthe transaction, as illustrated in block 508. As described above, in atleast one example, the payment processing module 116 can utilize therecord, and information associated therewith, to process thetransaction.

In an alternative example, the second user may not have a user profilein the data store(s) 120 and/or payment data associated with a userprofile in the data store(s) 120 is missing, incomplete, or otherwiseunusable. In such an example, the payment processing module 116 can senda request for payment information to a device operable by the seconduser. Responsive to the second user providing payment data, the paymentprocessing module 116 can process the transaction, as illustrated inblock 508. In examples where additional information is required toprocess the transaction (e.g., price), the payment processing module 116can facilitate communications between the user and the second user toobtain the additional information for processing the transaction.

Block 508 illustrates processing a transaction for the item using thepayment data. As described above, the payment processing module 116 canprocess transactions. In at least one example, the payment processingmodule 116 can send a request for authorization of the payment data to apayment service provider and process the transaction based on a responsefrom the payment service provider. In other examples, the paymentprocessing module 116 can access an account maintained by the paymentprocessing service provider and can use funds associated with theaccount to process the transaction.

In at least one example, the content management module 114 can reservethe item for the second user for a predetermined period of time afterwhich, if the second user has not purchased the item, the contentmanagement module 114 can offer the item to a different user. Forinstance, if the second user does not purchase the item by the time theperiod of time lapses, the content management module 114 can selectanother responding user to whom to offer the item. That is, in exampleswhere payment data and/or other information is necessary to process atransaction, the payment processing module 116 can wait to receive theinformation for a predetermined period of time and after thatpredetermined period of time lapses, the payment processing module 116can notify the content management module 114 that the transactionfailed. As such, the content management module 114 can select anotheruser to whom to offer the item. Additional details are described below.

If the first user opts to list the item for sale, thus solicitingadditional responses, the content management module 114 can edit thecontent to indicate that the item is available for sale, as illustratedin block 510. For instance, as described above, in at least one example,the content management module 114 can edit the content to provide aninstruction regarding a particular indicator to use to purchase the item(e.g., a particular word, image, emoji, etc.), a cost of the item, alength of time the item will be available for sale, and the like. Asdescribed above, in an alternate example, the content management module114 can add a response to the response(s) indicating that the item isavailable for sale, which can be associated with such instructions.

Block 512 illustrates monitoring additional response(s). In at least oneexample, the content management module 114 can monitor additionalresponses. That is, the content management module 114 can analyze theadditional responses (which can include new responses or updatedresponses) using an automated program that runs over the network(s) 108(e.g., a “bot,” a web crawler, etc.) and/or natural language processing,image recognition, and/or other machine-trained mechanisms to determinewhether any of the additional responses are associated with an indicatorindicating that another user desires to purchase the item. In someexamples, the additional response(s) can include additional, oralternative, bids from the second user.

Block 514 illustrates determining a third user to whom to sell the item.In at least one example, the content management module 114 can determinethat a response includes an indicator indicating a desire to purchasethe item(s) in the content. In such an example, the content managementmodule 114 can select a response, as described above with referenceblock 504. Based at least in part on selecting a response, the contentmanagement module 114 can identify a user associated with the selectedresponse (e.g., a third user) and transmit an indication of atransaction to the payment processing module 116. The payment processingmodule 116 can then initiate a transaction. That is, the paymentprocessing module 116 can access payment data from the third user, asillustrated in block 516 and described above with reference to block 506and process a transaction for the item using the payment data, asillustrated in block 518 and as described above with reference to block508.

With respect to FIGS. 3-5 , the seller can opt, at any time, not to listthe item for sale. In such an example, the content can revert to anoriginal posting, if applicable, and the item may no longer be offeredfor sale. In some examples, the seller can opt to save the item for asale at a later time. In such an example, the record can be stored andaccessed at a later time for a subsequent sale.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example process 600 for monitoring responses tocontent posted via a social media platform and/or facilitatingtransactions based on such responses.

Block 602 illustrates monitoring response(s) to content posted by a uservia a social media platform. As described above, in at least oneexample, the content management module 114 can monitor responses tocontent posted via the social media platform to determine whether suchresponses indicate intent to purchase item(s) depicted in the content.In some examples, as described above, users can respond to content(e.g., via comment, an action associated with a button or otheractuation mechanism, etc.) using an indicator indicating that usersdesire to purchase item(s) in the content. At least one example, theindicator can be prescribed (e.g., comment “mine” to indicate a desireto purchase the item) and the content management module 114 can analyzeresponses to identify the prescribed indicator. In other examples, thecontent management module 114 can analyze the responses to determinewhether any of the responses are associated with another indicatorindicating that another user desires to purchase the item. In at leastone example, the content management module 114 can use an automatedprogram that runs over the network(s) 108 (e.g., a “bot,” a web crawler,etc.) and/or natural language processing, image recognition, and/orother machine-trained mechanisms to determine which item(s) are ofinterest to responding users.

Block 604 illustrates determining whether at least one response includesan indicator indicating that another user desires to purchase an item inthe content. If no response includes an indicator indicating thatanother user desires to purchase an item in the content, process 600 canreturn to block 602. However, if a response includes an indicatorindicating that at least one other user desires to purchase the item,the content management module 114 can determine whether more than oneresponse includes an indicator indicating that another user desires topurchase an item in the content, as illustrated in block 606. If only asingle response includes an indicator indicating that another userdesires to purchase the item, the content management module 114 candetermine whether the item is available, as illustrated in block 608.

Block 608 illustrates determining whether the item is available. In atleast one example, the content management module 114 can access therecord associated with the item to determine whether the item is stillavailable for sale (e.g., the seller has not changed his or her mind tosell the item, the seller has not sold the item to another buyer viaanother channel, etc.). If the item is available, process 600 cancontinue as described in FIG. 7 below. However, if the item is notavailable, process 600 can continue as described in FIG. 8 below.

Block 610 illustrates analyzing the multiple responses that includeindicator(s) indicating that other users desire to purchase an item inthe content. In at least one example, based at least in part ondetermining that more than one response to content posted via socialmedia includes an indicator indicating that another user desires topurchase an item depicted in the content, the content management module114 can analyze the individual responses. In at least one example, thecontent management module 114 can rank, or otherwise establish apriority, among the multiple responses based at least in part on one ormore criteria. For instance, responses can be ranked based on time, suchthat a first-in-time response is prioritized over a later-in-timeresponse. Additionally or alternatively, responses can be ranked basedon bids (e.g., prices offered to purchase the item) such that ahigher-value bid is prioritized over a lower-value bid. Furthermore,responses can be ranked based on credibility of the users associatedwith such responses. For instance, responses from users that are knownto be associated with a robot or fraudulent users can be ranked belowresponses from users that are validated (e.g., based on priortransaction history). Moreover, the content management module 114 canrank responses from users that are known to respond to posted contentbut that fail to complete transactions (e.g., more than a thresholdamount of time or per some other metric) below responses from users thatare known to complete transactions (e.g., conversion rate). Variousother criterion can be used to rank responses including but not limitedto creditworthiness, whether or not payment data is already on-file, howmany items a user has previously purchased and/or intends to purchase,and so on.

Block 612 illustrates determining if more than one item is available. Ifmore than one item is available, the content management module 114 canselect a number of responses corresponding to the quantity of the itemavailable, as illustrated in block 614, and process 600 can continue asdescribed in FIG. 7 below. However, if a single item is available, thecontent management module can select a highest-ranking response, asillustrated in block 616, and process 600 can continue as described inFIG. 7 below. As described above, in some examples, the highest-rankingresponse can be the first-in-time response. In additional or alternativeexamples, the highest-ranking response can be a response associated withthe highest bid, etc.

In some examples, if only a single item is available and/or if feweritems are available than the total number of responses includingindicator(s) indicating a desire to purchase the item, process 600 cancontinue as described in FIG. 8 below. That is, the content managementmodule 114 can leverage the platform of sellers associated with thepayment processing service provider to identify additional item(s) (ofthe same or similar item type) that are available for purchase.Additional details are described below in FIG. 8 .

FIG. 7 illustrates an example process 700 for onboarding a user forfacilitating a transaction via social media interactions.

Block 702 illustrates determining whether a user agrees to sell an itemto another user. In at least one example, responsive to one or moreresponses being selected, the content management module 114 can promptthe user (e.g., the seller) to approve getting into a transactionalrelationship with another user corresponding to a response of the one ormore responses. That is, the content management module 114 can send, toa seller device, such as seller device 106, an indication that aparticular user desires to purchase the item and a request for the user(e.g., the seller) to agree to sell the item to the other user. Worthnoting, however, in some examples, process 700 can proceed withoutobtaining approval from the user (e.g., the seller) to sell the item tothe other user.

Block 704 illustrates determining whether the user has a user profileassociated with the payment processing service provider. In at least oneexample, the payment processing module 116 can receive an indication ofa transaction for an item and an indication that the user agrees to sellthe item to the other user. The payment processing module 116 candetermine whether the user selling the item has a user profileassociated with the payment processing service provider. That is, thepayment processing module 116 can access the data store(s) 120 todetermine whether the user is associated with an account. In someexamples, the user can utilize services offered by the paymentprocessing service provider and, such usage can cause the paymentprocessing module 116 to generate an account for the user.

Block 706 illustrates accessing payment data associated with the otheruser(s) associated with the response(s). Th payment processing module116 can access payment data from each of the user(s) associated with theresponse(s) selected to facilitate transaction(s) between the user(e.g., the seller) and the other user(s) (e.g., the buyer(s)). In someexamples, another user can have transacted, or otherwise interactedwith, seller(s) associated with the payment processing service providerand, such transactions and/or interactions can cause the paymentprocessing module 116 to generate an account for the other user. In atleast one example, such a user can store payment data in a user profilein the data store(s) 120 and/or the user profile can be associated withan account maintained by the payment processing service provider (whichcan be associated with respective payment data). In such an example, thepayment processing module 116 can utilize the payment data forprocessing the transaction. If the other user (e.g., the buyer) isassociated with a user profile in the data store(s) 120, the paymentprocessing module 116 can then initiate a transaction. That is, thepayment processing module 116 can access payment data associated withthe other user and process the transaction, as illustrated in block 708.

In an alternative example, one of the other users may not have a userprofile in the data store(s) 120 and/or payment data associated with auser profile in the data store(s) 120 is missing, incomplete, orotherwise unusable. In such an example, the payment processing module116 can send a request for payment information to a device operable bythe other user. Responsive to the other user providing payment data, thepayment processing module 116 can process the transaction, asillustrated in block 708.

Block 710 illustrates onboarding the user. If the payment processingmodule 116 determines that the user does not have an account with thepayment processing service provider, the payment processing module 116may prompt the user to provide information to the payment processingmodule 116 to at least temporarily onboard the user. In at least oneexample, the payment processing module 116 can enable the user toperform transactions until a threshold is satisfied (e.g., a number oftransactions, a dollar amount, etc.). If the user has not fullyonboarded by the time the threshold is satisfied, the payment processingmodule 116 can request the user to provide additional information beforethe user can further use the payment processing service provider. In anyevent, the payment processing module 116 can access payment data fromthe other user(s) to process the transaction(s). Such information can beused for transferring funds from the other user(s) (e.g., the buyer(s))to an account of the user (e.g., the seller), which can be maintained bythe payment processing service provider or a third-party payment serviceprovider. In examples where the funds are transferred to the third-partypayment service provider, the funds can be transferred via the paymentprocessing service provider prior to the funds being transferred to thethird-party payment service provider. Furthermore, information providedby the user, either in association with onboarding in block 708 orpreviously, can be used to facilitate fulfillment and other aspects ofthe transaction.

Block 712 illustrates refraining from processing a transaction tobetween the user and the other user for the item. If the user (e.g., theseller) does not agree to sell the item to the other user, the paymentprocessing module 116 can refrain from selling the item to the otheruser and/or processing a resulting transaction.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example process 800 for determining theavailability of an item leveraging a seller network that is availed viaa payment processing service provider.

Block 802 illustrates determining whether the item is available fromanother seller associated with the payment processing service provider.In some examples, an item may become unavailable (e.g., the sellerchanges his or her mind, the seller sells the item to another user viaan alternative process, etc.) and/or the demand for the item exceeds theavailability of the item. In such examples, the content managementmodule 114 can leverage the payment processing service provider toascertain whether the item (or items similar to the item) are availablevia one or more other sellers that are associated with the paymentprocessing service provider. In at least one example, the paymentprocessing service provider can offer services to a plurality ofdifferent sellers, as described below with reference to FIG. 14 . Insome examples, the content management module 114 can access inventory ofsuch sellers and can determine that other seller(s) have the item (oritems similar to the item) available for purchase.

Block 804 illustrates notifying the other user(s) that the item isavailable from another seller. For example, if the content managementmodule 114 identifies another seller from whom the item is available,the content management module 114 can add a response indicating analternate seller through which the other user(s) (e.g., buyer(s)) canpurchase the item. In such an example, the content management module 114can include a link or other mechanism to enable the other user(s) topurchase the item from the alternate seller. Additionally oralternatively, the content management module 114 can send a notificationto the other user(s) to notify the user(s) that there are other sellerswho have the item (or a similar item) available for purchase. In such anexample, the content management module 114 can include a link or othermechanism to enable the other user(s) to purchase the item from thealternate seller. In some examples, the content management module 114can add the other user(s) to a queue for another seller, to enable theother user(s) to purchase the item (or a similar item) from the otherseller. In at least one example, the content management module 114 canreserve a position in the queue for another user that is a sameposition, or within a threshold position of, the position of the otheruser in a queue of the user (e.g., the seller) so that their position iscomparable to where it would have been had the other user not tried topurchase the item from the user (e.g., the seller). In at least oneexample, details associated with the offer and/or transaction can bemanaged by the content management module 114 such that the bid amountprevious offered by the other user is maintained across sellers, therebymitigating friction and/or lags caused by renegotiating with otherseller(s).

Block 806 illustrates notifying the other user(s) that the item is notavailable. If the content management module 114 is not able to identifyanother seller from whom the item is available, the content managementmodule 114 can notify the other user(s) that the item is not available.In some examples, the content management module 114 can add a responseto the content and/or can send a notification to the other user(s)indicating such.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example process 900 for prioritizing multipleresponses to content depicting item(s) that are for sale.

Block 902 illustrates analyzing multiple responses indicating a desireto purchase an item depicted in content posted by a user via a socialmedia platform using one or more criteria. In examples where there ismore than one response indicating a desire to purchase an item depictedin content, the content management module 114 can rank, or otherwiseestablish a priority, among multiple responses based at least in part onone or more criteria. That is, the content management module 114 canrank the multiple responses based at least in part on the one or morecriteria, as illustrated in block 904. For instance, responses can beranked based on time, such that a first-in-time response is prioritizedover a later-in-time response. Additionally or alternatively, responsescan be ranked based on bids (e.g., prices offered to purchase the item)such that a higher-value bid is prioritized over a lower-value bid.Furthermore, responses can be ranked based on credibility of the usersassociated with such responses. For instance, responses from users thatare known to be associated with a robot or fraudulent users can beranked below responses from users that are validated (e.g., based onprior transaction history). Moreover, the content management module 114can rank responses from users that are known to respond to postedcontent but that fail to complete transactions (e.g., more than athreshold amount of time or per some other metric) below responses fromusers that are known to complete transactions (e.g., conversion rate).Various other criterion can be used to rank responses including but notlimited to creditworthiness, whether or not payment data is alreadyon-file, how many items a user has previously purchased and/or intendsto purchase, and so on. In at least one example, the content managementmodule 114 can rank responses using a machine-trained mechanism, forexample, based at least in part on past and present transactions, orother interactions, as described above.

Block 906 illustrates sending, to a computing device operable by a userassociated with a highest-ranking response, an offer to purchase theitem. In at least one example, the content management module 114 canselect a highest-ranking response and can determine to offer the itemfor purchase to a user associated with the highest-ranking response. Asdescribed above, in some examples, the highest-ranking response can bethe first-in-time response. In additional or alternative examples, thehighest-ranking response can be a response associated with the highestbid, sequence in virtual line, past interactions with the seller (e.g.,buyers tagged as preferred or verified buyers), etc. In at least oneexample, a highest-ranking response can be associated with a score thatcan be a highest-value score or a score that meets or exceeds athreshold. In some examples, the content management module 114 canidentify a user associated with the selected response and transmit anindication of a transaction to the payment processing module 116.

The payment processing module 116 can initiate a transaction for theitem. In some examples, the payment processing module 116 can determinewhether the user is associated with a user profile in the data store(s)120 and whether the user profile is associated with either (i) anaccount maintained by the payment processing service provider that hasfunds to satisfy at least a portion of the cost of the item or (ii)payment data associated with another instrument (e.g., a debit card, acredit card, etc.). If the payment processing module 116 has access topayment data, the payment processing module 116 can process atransaction for the item. In some examples, the payment processingmodule 116 can send a notification to the other user (e.g., the buyer)to request the other user confirm the purchase. That is, the paymentprocessing module 116 can send an offer (e.g., conditional, such as atime-restricted, term-restricted, etc.) to purchase the item and, basedat least in part on the other user accepting the offer, can process thetransaction, e.g., as illustrated at block 910. In such an example, ifthe other user does not confirm the purchase (e.g., accept the offer)within the predetermined period of time, the payment processing module116 can determine that the user does not accept the offer within thepredetermined period of time.

Furthermore, if the payment processing module 116 does not have accessto a user profile in the data store(s) 120 and/or payment dataassociated with a user profile in the data store(s) 120 is missing,incomplete, or otherwise unusable, the payment processing module 116 cansend a request. In such examples, the payment processing module 116 cansend a request for payment information a device operable by the otheruser. Responsive to the other user providing payment data, the paymentprocessing module 116 can process the transaction, as illustrated inblock 910. However, if the other user does not provide the paymentinformation within the predetermined period of time, the paymentprocessing module 116 can determine that the user does not accept theoffer within the predetermined period of time.

Block 908 illustrates determining whether the user accepts the offerwithin a predetermined period of time. In at least one example, theserver(s) 102 can receive indication of whether the user (e.g., thebuyer) accepts the offer, provide payment data, and so on (e.g., from acorresponding device operable by the user). Based at least in part ondetermining that the user accepts the offer with the predeterminedperiod of time (e.g., confirms the purchase, provides paymentinformation, etc.), the payment processing module 116 can process atransaction for the item, as illustrated in block 910 as describedabove. Based at least in part on determining that the user does notaccept the offer within the predetermined period of time, the contentmanagement module 114 can select a lower-ranked response, as illustratedin block 912. The payment processing module 116 can then send, to acomputing device operable by a user associated with the lower-rankingresponse, an offer to purchase the item, as illustrated in block 914.Process 900 can then return to block 908 to determine whether the useraccepts the offer within a predetermined period of time, or any othercondition identified by the payment processing service provider and/orseller.

That is, as described above, the content management module 114 canreserve the item for the other user for a predetermined period of timeafter which, if the other user has not purchased the item, the contentmanagement module 114 can offer the item to a different user. Forinstance, if the other user does not purchase the item by the time theperiod of time lapses, the content management module 114 can selectanother responding user to whom to offer the item. That is, in exampleswhere payment data and/or other information is necessary to process atransaction, the payment processing module 116 can wait to receive theinformation for a predetermined period of time and after thatpredetermined period of time lapses, the payment processing module 116can notify the content management module 114 that the transactionfailed. As such, the content management module 114 can select anotheruser to whom to offer the item.

FIGS. 10-13 illustrate GUIs that can be presented via user interfaces,such as the user interface(s) 122 and the user interface(s) 124 in FIGS.1 and 2 . The GUIs in FIGS. 10-13 are provided for illustrative purposesand should not be construed as limiting. That is, the GUI elements(e.g., text, images, actuation mechanisms, etc.) should not be construedas limiting. Furthermore, the configuration and/or presentation of theGUI elements should not be construed as limiting.

As described above, in at least one example, the content managementmodule 114 can monitor responses to content posted via the social mediaplatform using an automated program that runs over the network(s) 108(e.g., a “bot,” a web crawler, etc.) and/or natural language processing,image recognition, and/or other machine-trained mechanisms to determinewhether such responses indicate intent to purchase item(s) depicted inthe content. In some examples, the content posted can be associated withan explicit intent to sell an item depicted in the content (e.g., asillustrated in FIG. 1 ). In other examples, the content posted may notbe associated with any intent to sell an item depicted in the content(e.g., as illustrated in FIG. 2 ) or may be associated with an intent tosell one item depicted in the content but not other item(s) depicted inthe content. In some examples, users can respond to content (e.g., viacomment, an action associated with a button or other actuationmechanism, etc.) using an indicator indicating that users desire topurchase item(s) in the content. In at least one example, the contentmanagement module 114 can send a notification to the user to indicate tothe user that other users are interested in purchasing item(s) incontent posted by the user. FIG. 10 illustrates an example GUI 1000 forpresenting such a notification to a user. In at least one example, thenotification can include information 1002 indicating the number ofinterested users, price(s) offered, or other information indicative ofthe extent that other user(s) are interested in purchasing the item(s),etc. Such a notification can be used to incentivize the user to list theitem for sale. This notification can show up as an interstitial, alert,or “direct” message on the application where the image was first posted,or separately on a communication channel (e.g., text, email) identifiedby the seller. Furthermore, the notification can dynamically change totrack changes in the interested users, bids, ranking of users, and soon. That is, the UI 124 can receive updates to information presented viasuch a notification and can dynamically update such information as theupdates are received (e.g., in near real-time). In at least one example,the user can interact with the GUI 1000 via one or more actuationmechanisms, which can provide a response to the notification to thecontent management module 114. GUI 1000 includes three actuationmechanisms: 1004, 1006, and 1008.

Actuation mechanism 1004 enables the user to agree to sell the item, butto sell the item to another user who has already offered to buy theitem. Actuation mechanism 1006 enables the user to agree to sell theitem and to do so via an auction. Actuation mechanism 1008 enables theuser to decline the offer to sell the item. Actuation of an actuationmechanism can send a response from the device operable by the user(e.g., the seller device 104) to the server(s) 102. As described above,the content management module 114 can analyze a response from the user(e.g., a device associated therewith, such as the seller device 104) todetermine whether the user agrees to list the item for sale. Based atleast in part on the user indicating a desire to list the item(s) forsale, the content management module 114 can create a record for theitem, as described above.

As described above, the content management module 114 can prompt theuser for information at the time the record is created. FIG. 11illustrates an example GUI 1100 for requesting such information from theuser. In some examples, such a prompt can be presented as a pop-up 1100,as illustrated in FIG. 11 . In alternative examples, such a prompt canbe presented as an overlay or via another linked GUI. In at least oneexample, the content management module 114 can request informationassociated with characteristics of the item (e.g., size, color,condition, brand, etc.). Furthermore, the content management module 114can ask the user whether the user is looking to sell the item for aparticular price (e.g., a minimum price, a fixed price, etc.) or wantsto start an auction (e.g., allow users to place bids). In some examples,the content management module 114 can prompt the user for a period oftime for selling the item (e.g., after which the item is no longer to belisted for sale). The content management module 114 can update therecord based at least in part on information provided by the user. Thatis, the record becomes an inventory record for the item.

In some examples, the prompt can request a user identifier associatedwith the user (e.g., the seller), which can be used by the contentmanagement module 114 to identify the user and determine whether theuser is associated with a user profile in the data store(s) 120. If auser does not have a user identifier (e.g., has not onboarded with thepayment processing service provider), the user can opt to sign-up withthe payment processing service provider.

In at least one example, the same or similar prompt can be presented toa user responsive to the content management module 114 determining thatcontent is associated with an intent to sell when the content is posted.That is, in some examples, the content management module 114 can promptthe user for the same or similar information prior to generating therecord, as described above. As described above, in at least one example,at least some of the information can be auto-populated at the time therecord is created. For example, the content management module 114 canauto-populate information associated with characteristics of the item(e.g., size, color, condition, brand, etc.), which, in some examples,can be based on an image search and/or searches of marketplace(s) whereother seller(s), which may be similar to the user (or not), are sellingthe item.

As described above, in some examples, a user can post content with anintent to sell an item depicted in the content, but another useridentifies another item depicted in the content that they are interestedin purchasing. That is, an image may be associated with a direct selloption (e.g., with an actionable link that enables a buyer to purchaseitem(s) depicted in the image) and/or an indirect sell option (e.g.,comment or other indicator that the seller desires to sell item(s)depicted in the image). Nevertheless, another user can identify an itemin the image (that is neither associated with the direct sell option northe indirect sell option) that the other user desires to purchase. As anexample, in FIG. 10 , a user can post the content with, for example, adirect sell option and/or an indirect sell option for the jacketdepicted in the image. Other users, however, can be interested in theboots, in which case, FIGS. 10 and 11 can facilitate the user listingthe boots for sale, in addition to, the jacket. In another example,however, the user can post the content without an intent to sell thejacket and/or the boots. In such an example, FIGS. 10 and 11 canfacilitate the user listing the boots for sale based at least in part oninterest expressed by other users.

In some examples, the content management module 114 can sendcommunications to user devices to confirm the sale and/or purchase of anitem. FIG. 12 illustrates an example GUI 1200 that can be presented to aseller, requesting the seller confirm that he or she desires to sell hisor her item(s) (e.g., boots). The GUI 1200 can include actuationmechanisms, 1202 and 1204, that enable the seller to confirm that he orshe desires to sell his or her item(s) (e.g., actuation mechanism 1202)or not (e.g., actuation mechanism 1204). In some examples, a timer canbe provided, or otherwise employed, to track time such that if theseller does not confirm the sale prior to a lapse of a predeterminedperiod of time, the content management module 114 can refrain fromgenerating content to enable the seller to sell the item(s).

FIG. 13 illustrates an example GUI 1300 that can be presented to a buyerto confirm that he or she desires to purchase an item (e.g., the boots)and, if payment data is needed, to request payment data. As illustratedin FIG. 13 , the GUI 1300 can include actuation mechanisms, 1302 and1304, that enable the buyer to confirm that he or she desires topurchase the item(s) (e.g., actuation mechanism 1302) or not (e.g.,actuation mechanism 1304). Furthermore, the GUI 1300 can include anactuation mechanism 1306 to enable the buyer to provide paymentinformation (e.g., payment data), if necessary. Responsive to the buyeractuating the actuation mechanism 1306, the payment processing module116 can provide a mechanism for the buyer to securely enter his or herpayment data and transmit the payment data to the payment processingservice provider. In some examples, a timer can be provided, orotherwise employed, to track time such that if the buyer does notconfirm the purchase of the boots prior to a lapse of a predeterminedperiod of time, the content management module 114 can enable anotherbuyer to purchase the item(s).

The GUIs described above with reference to FIGS. 10-13 can be sent viaan email, text message, private message, push notification, etc. In someexamples, such a communication (e.g., email, text message, privatemessage, push notification, etc.) can include a link or other actuationmechanism that the user can actuate to cause the respective GUI to bepresented.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example environment 1400. The environment 1400includes server computing device(s) 1402 that can communicate over anetwork 1404 with user devices 1406 (which, in some examples can beseller devices 1408 (individually, 1408(A)-1408(N))) and/or servercomputing device(s) 1410 associated with third-party serviceprovider(s). The server computing device(s) 1402 can be associated witha service provider 1412 that can provide one or more services for thebenefit of users 1414, as described below. Actions attributed to theservice provider 1412 can be performed by the server computing device(s)1402.

In at least one example, the service provider 1412 can correspond to thepayment processing service provider described above. In at least oneexample, the server computing device(s) 1402 can correspond to theserver(s) 102 and the network(s) 1404 can correspond to the network(s)108 described above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 . In at least oneexample, the social media service providers described above withreference to FIGS. 1 and 2 can be associated with the server computingdevice(s) 1410 associated with third-party service provider(s).

The environment 1400 can facilitate transacting via social mediainteractions. As described above, a user (e.g., a seller) can postcontent via a social media platform. Such content can depict item(s)(e.g., goods and/or services). In some examples, the content can beassociated with an intent to sell an item depicted in the content (e.g.,text associated with an image indicating that the user is looking tosell an item depicted in the content). In other examples, the contentmay not be associated with an intent to sell (e.g., no explicit orimplicit indication that the user desires to sell anything depicted inthe content). Other users can respond to the post, for instance viacomment, interaction with a button or other actuation mechanism (e.g.,like, dislike, funny, love, etc.), and so on. Interested users canprovide indicators indicating their desire to purchase item(s) depictedin the content. For instance, a user can comment “mine” or “I want tobuy that [item].” The responses can be analyzed by a payment processingservice provider, which can be associated with the service provider1412. The service provider 1412 can identify an interested user, accesspayment information for the user, and/or process payment for the item.That is, the service provider 1412 can facilitate a transaction betweenthe buyer and the seller for an item depicted in the content posted viathe social media platform.

In at least one example, techniques performed by the environment 1400can alleviate the need for users interested in selling via social mediaplatforms to perform any action that they usually wouldn't perform priorto posting content to social media platforms. That is, users interestedin selling via social media platforms can simply post content to one ormore social media platforms and techniques described herein are directedto creating selling opportunities and facilitating transactions based onsuch content.

As described above, components of the environment 1400 can identifypurchasing intent of other users and can create a selling opportunityeven when one did not originally exist (e.g., at the time the contentwas posted). That is, if a user posts content that is not associatedwith an intent to sell, the service provider 1412 can neverthelesscreate a record of item(s) associated with the content at some timeafter the content is posted and can monitor responses to facilitate atransaction.

As described above, users of social media platforms (e.g., websites,applications, and other network-based communication tools provided bysocial media service providers) leverage social media tools for onlinecommerce (“ecommerce”). However, current technology has limitations, asdescribed above. In some examples, a user interested in purchasing anitem posted via social media is required to follow-up with the sellervia another communication tool (e.g., email, text message, privatemessage, etc.) to coordinate the purchase. Such systems introduceunnecessary lag due to response times associated with the users.Furthermore, the current infrastructure does not allow automaticfiltering of the users and puts the onus on the seller on whether or notto initiate a conversation with the interested users, engage in afinancial transaction with them, and so on. In other examples, a user isdirected to a webpage (usually different from the webpage or platformwhere the interaction originated) where the user is then required to addan item to a virtual cart and provide payment data to complete an onlinetransaction. As such, a social media platform has to establishcommunication interfaces between disparate platforms, for examplebetween a social media platform (that allows interaction between twousers) and a payment platform (that facilitates payment transactions).These communication interfaces have to meet security protocols to allowsecure communications, such as exchange of financial data. Existingtechnology also introduces friction when users intend to purchase itemsvia social media platforms. That is, users—both buyers and sellers—arerequired to perform multiple actions to facilitate a transaction, whichcan include multiple exchanges of communications, multiple clicksthrough multiple web pages, interactions or sign-ups with multipleplatforms, or the like. As such, current technology is inefficient andis not user friendly. The environment 1400 described herein enablesfrictionless (or near-frictionless) transactions via interactions withsocial media content. Thus, techniques described herein offerimprovements to existing technology.

In some examples, existing techniques directed to comment selling allowsellers to post images of items available for sale via social mediaplatforms, harvest comments, and turn such comments into invoices.However, in such examples, existing techniques require users to createrecords for items to be sold via social media posts prior to posting theitems via social media platforms. That is, existing techniques requireusers to provide an image, description of the image, quantity available,sizes (if applicable), etc. Such information is used to create contentthat can be posted to a social media platform, with an identifier toidentify a previously created record. Users can comment when they wantto purchase an item and the previously created record can be used tocreate an invoice and facilitate a transaction. That is, existingtechniques require users to perform various actions prior to postingcontent to a social media platform. For instance, sellers are requiredto input a significant amount of information prior to posting content tosocial media platforms. As such, existing techniques require the storageof such content and associated records and introduce unnecessary lag dueto time required to input such information and otherwise set up records.The environment 1400 described herein enables improvements to currenttechnology by alleviating required actions prior to posting content viasocial media platforms. In at least one example, techniques describedherein reduce storage requirements by enabling record(s) of item(s)associated with the content to be created at some time after the contentis posted (e.g., without the seller(s) having implicitly or explicitlyindicated an intent to sell). Furthermore, techniques described hereinenable users to use social media platforms consistent with how socialmedia platforms are intended to be used, without requiring additionalactions to be performed before content is shared. That is, techniquesdescribed herein can alleviate the need for a social media platform toestablish communication interfaces between disparate platforms yet canoffer the ability for sellers to sell items via a social media platformusing secure communications. As such, techniques described herein aredirected to improvements over existing technologies.

The environment 1400 can include a plurality of user devices 1406, asdescribed above. Each one of the plurality of user devices 1406 can beany type of computing device such as a tablet computing device, a smartphone or mobile communication device, a laptop, a netbook or otherportable computer or semi-portable computer, a desktop computing device,a terminal computing device or other semi-stationary or stationarycomputing device, a dedicated device, a wearable computing device orother body-mounted computing device, an augmented reality device, avirtual reality device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc. In someexamples, individual ones of the user devices can be operable by users1414. The users 1414 can be referred to as buyers, customers, sellers,merchants, borrowers, employees, employers, payors, payees, couriers andso on. The users 1414 can interact with the user devices 1406 via userinterfaces presented via the user devices 1406. In at least one example,a user interface can be presented via a web browser, or the like. Inother examples, a user interface can be presented via an application,such as a mobile application or desktop application, which can beprovided by the service provider 1412 or which can be an otherwisededicated application. In some examples, individual of the user devices1406 can have an instance or versioned instance of an application, whichcan be downloaded from an application store, for example, which canpresent the user interface(s) described herein. In at least one example,a user 1414 can interact with the user interface via touch input, spokeninput, or any other type of input.

In at least one example, the seller device 104 and the buyer device 106described above in FIGS. 1 and 2 can comprise user devices 1406 asdescribed herein. Similarly, the seller 110 and the buyer 112 cancomprise users 1414 as used herein.

In at least one example, the users 1414 can include sellers 1416(individually, 1416(A)-1416(N)). In an example, the sellers 1416 canoperate respective seller devices 1408, which can be user devices 1406configured for use by sellers 1416. For the purpose of this discussion,a “seller” can be any entity that offers items (e.g., goods or services)for purchase or other means of acquisition (e.g., rent, borrow, barter,etc.). The sellers 1416 can offer items for purchase or other means ofacquisition via brick-and-mortar stores, mobile stores (e.g., pop-upshops, food trucks, etc.), online stores, combinations of the foregoing,and so forth. In some examples, at least some of the sellers 1416 can beassociated with a same entity but can have different seller locationsand/or can have franchise/franchisee relationships. In additional oralternative examples, the sellers 1416 can be different sellers. Thatis, in at least one example, the seller 1416(A) is a different sellerthan the seller 1416(B) and/or the seller 1416(C).

For the purpose of this discussion, “different sellers” can refer to twoor more unrelated sellers. “Different sellers” therefore can refer totwo or more sellers that are different legal entities (e.g., naturalpersons and/or corporate persons) that do not share accounting,employees, branding, etc. “Different sellers,” as used herein, havedifferent names, employer identification numbers (EIN)s, lines ofbusiness (in some examples), inventories (or at least portions thereof),and/or the like. Thus, the use of the term “different sellers” does notrefer to a seller with various seller locations or franchise/franchiseerelationships. Such sellers—with various seller locations orfranchise/franchisee relationships—can be referred to as sellers havingdifferent seller locations and/or different commerce channels.

Each seller device 1408 can have an instance of a POS application 1418stored thereon. The POS application 1418 can configure the seller device1408 as a POS terminal, which enables the seller 1416(A) to interactwith one or more buyers 1420. As described above, the users 1414 caninclude buyers, such as the buyers 1420 shown as interacting with theseller 1416(A). For the purpose of this discussion, a “buyer” can be anyentity that acquires items from sellers. While only two buyers 1420 areillustrated in FIG. 14 , any number of buyers 1420 can interact with thesellers 1416. Further, while FIG. 14 illustrates the buyers 1420interacting with the seller 1416(A), the buyers 1420 can interact withany of the sellers 1416.

In at least one example, interactions between the buyers 1420 and thesellers 1416 that involve the exchange of funds (from the buyers 1420)for items (from the sellers 1416) can be referred to as “POStransactions” and/or “transactions.” In at least one example, the POSapplication 1418 can determine transaction data associated with the POStransactions. Transaction data can include payment information, whichcan be obtained from a reader device 1422 associated with the sellerdevice 1408(A), user authentication data, purchase amount information,point-of-purchase information (e.g., item(s) purchased, date ofpurchase, time of purchase, etc.), etc. The POS application 1418 cansend transaction data to the server computing device(s) 1402.Furthermore, the POS application 1418 can present a UI to enable theseller 1416(A) to interact with the POS application 1418 and/or theservice provider 1412 via the POS application 1418.

In at least one example, the seller device 1408(A) can be aspecial-purpose computing device configured as a POS terminal (via theexecution of the POS application 1418). In at least one example, the POSterminal may be connected to a reader device 1422, which is capable ofaccepting a variety of payment instruments, such as credit cards, debitcards, gift cards, short-range communication-based payment instruments,and the like, as described below. In at least one example, the readerdevice 1422 can plug in to a port in the seller device 1408(A), such asa microphone port, a headphone port, an audio-jack, a data port, orother suitable port. In additional or alternative examples, the readerdevice 1422 can be coupled to the seller device 1408(A) via anotherwired or wireless connection, such as via a Bluetooth®, BLE, and so on.Additional details are described below with reference to FIG. 15 . Insome examples, the reader device 1422 can read information fromalternative payment instruments including, but not limited to,wristbands and the like.

In some examples, the reader device 1422 may physically interact withpayment instruments such as magnetic stripe payment cards, EMV paymentcards, and/or short-range communication (e.g., near field communication(NFC), radio frequency identification (RFID), Bluetooth®, Bluetooth® lowenergy (BLE), etc.) payment instruments (e.g., cards or devicesconfigured for tapping). The POS terminal may provide a rich userinterface, communicate with the reader device 1422, and communicate withthe server computing device(s) 1402, which can provide, among otherservices, a payment processing service. The server computing device(s)1402 associated with the service provider 1412 can communicate withserver computing device(s) 1410, as described below. In this manner, thePOS terminal and reader device 1422 may collectively processtransaction(s) between the sellers 1416 and buyers 1420. In someexamples, POS terminals and reader devices can be configured inone-to-one pairings. In other examples, the POS terminals and readerdevices can be configured in many-to-one pairings (e.g., one POSterminal coupled to multiple reader devices or multiple POS terminalscoupled to one reader device). In some examples, there could be multiplePOS terminal(s) connected to a number of other devices, such as“secondary” terminals, e.g., back-of-the-house systems, printers,line-buster devices, POS readers, and the like, to allow for informationfrom the secondary terminal to be shared between the primary POSterminal(s) and secondary terminal(s), for example via short-rangecommunication technology. This kind of arrangement may also work in anoffline-online scenario to allow one device (e.g., secondary terminal)to continue taking user input, and synchronize data with another device(e.g., primary terminal) when the primary or secondary terminal switchesto online mode. In other examples, such data synchronization may happenperiodically or at randomly selected time intervals.

While, the POS terminal and the reader device 1422 of the POS system1424 are shown as separate devices, in additional or alternativeexamples, the POS terminal and the reader device 1422 can be part of asingle device. In some examples, the reader device 1422 can have adisplay integrated therein for presenting information to the buyers1420. In additional or alternative examples, the POS terminal can have adisplay integrated therein for presenting information to the buyers1420. POS systems, such as the POS system 1424, may be mobile, such thatPOS terminals and reader devices may process transactions in disparatelocations across the world. POS systems can be used for processingcard-present transactions and card-not-present (CNP) transactions, asdescribed below.

A card-present transaction is a transaction where both a buyer 1420 andhis or her payment instrument are physically present at the time of thetransaction. Card-present transactions may be processed by swipes, dips,taps, or any other interaction between a physical payment instrument(e.g., a card), or otherwise present payment instrument, and a readerdevice 1422 whereby the reader device 1422 is able to obtain paymentdata from the payment instrument. A swipe is a card-present transactionwhere a buyer 1420 slides a card, or other payment instrument, having amagnetic strip through a reader device 1422 that captures payment datacontained in the magnetic strip. A dip is a card-present transactionwhere a buyer 1420 inserts a payment instrument having an embeddedmicrochip (i.e., chip) into a reader device 1422 first. The dippedpayment instrument remains in the payment reader until the reader device1422 prompts the buyer 1420 to remove the card, or other paymentinstrument. While the payment instrument is in the reader device 1422,the microchip can create a one-time code which is sent from the POSsystem 1424 to the server computing device(s) 1410 (which can beassociated with third-party service providers that provide paymentservices, including but not limited to, an acquirer bank, an issuer,and/or a card payment network (e.g., Mastercard®, VISA®, etc.)) to bematched with an identical one-time code. A tap is a card-presenttransaction where a buyer 1420 may tap or hover his or her paymentinstrument (e.g., card, electronic device such as a smart phone runninga payment application, etc.) over a reader device 1422 to complete atransaction via short-range communication (e.g., NFC, RFID, Bluetooth®,BLE, etc.). Short-range communication enables the payment instrument toexchange information with the reader device 1422. A tap may also becalled a contactless payment.

A CNP transaction is a transaction where a card, or other paymentinstrument, is not physically present at the POS such that payment datais required to be manually keyed in (e.g., by a seller, buyer, etc.), orpayment data is required to be recalled from a card-on-file data store,to complete the transaction.

The POS system 1424, the server computing device(s) 1402, and/or theserver computing device(s) 1410 may exchange payment information andtransaction data to determine whether transactions are authorized. Forexample, the POS system 1424 may provide encrypted payment data, userauthentication data, purchase amount information, point-of-purchaseinformation, etc. (collectively, transaction data) to server computingdevice(s) 1402 over the network(s) 1404. The server computing device(s)1402 may send the transaction data to the server computing device(s)1410. As described above, in at least one example, the server computingdevice(s) 1410 can be associated with third-party service providers thatprovide payment services, including but not limited to, an acquirerbank, an issuer, and/or a card payment network (e.g., Mastercard®,VISA®, etc.)

For the purpose of this discussion, the “payment service providers” canbe acquiring banks (“acquirer”), issuing banks (“issuer”), card paymentnetworks, and the like. In an example, an acquirer is a bank orfinancial institution that processes payments (e.g., credit or debitcard payments) and can assume risk on behalf of sellers(s). An acquirercan be a registered member of a card association (e.g., Visa®,MasterCard®), and can be part of a card payment network. The acquirer(e.g., the server computing device(s) 1410 associated therewith) cansend a fund transfer request to a server computing device of a cardpayment network (e.g., Mastercard®, VISA®, etc.) to determine whetherthe transaction is authorized or deficient. In at least one example, theservice provider 1412 can serve as an acquirer and connect directly withthe card payment network.

The card payment network (e.g., the server computing device(s) 1410associated therewith) can forward the fund transfer request to anissuing bank (e.g., “issuer”). The issuer is a bank or financialinstitution that offers a financial account (e.g., credit or debit cardaccount) to a user. An issuer can issue payment cards to users and canpay acquirers for purchases made by cardholders to which the issuingbank has issued a payment card. The issuer (e.g., the server computingdevice(s) 1410 associated therewith) can make a determination as towhether the buyer has the capacity to absorb the relevant chargeassociated with the payment transaction. In at least one example, theservice provider 1412 can serve as an issuer and/or can partner with anissuer. The transaction is either approved or rejected by the issuerand/or the card payment network (e.g., the server computing device(s)1410 associated therewith), and a payment authorization message iscommunicated from the issuer to the POS device via a path opposite ofthat described above, or via an alternate path.

As described above, the server computing device(s) 1410, which can beassociated with payment service provider(s), may determine whether thetransaction is authorized based on the transaction data, as well asinformation relating to parties to the transaction (e.g., the buyer 1420and/or the seller 1416(A)). The server computing device(s) 1410 may sendan authorization notification over the network(s) 1404 to the servercomputing device(s) 1402, which may send the authorization notificationto the POS system 1424 over the network(s) 1404 to indicate whether thetransaction is authorized. The server computing device(s) 1402 may alsotransmit additional information such as transaction identifiers to thePOS system 1424. In one example, the server computing device(s) 1402 mayinclude a seller application and/or other functional components forcommunicating with the POS system 1424 and/or the server computingdevice(s) 1410 to authorize or decline transactions.

Based on the authentication notification that is received by the POSsystem 1424 from server computing device(s) 1402, the seller 1416(A) mayindicate to the buyer 1420 whether the transaction has been approved. Insome examples, approval may be indicated at the POS system 1424, forexample, at a display of the POS system 1424. In other examples, such aswith a smart phone or watch operating as a short-range communicationpayment instrument, information about the approved transaction may beprovided to the short-range communication payment instrument forpresentation via a display of the smart phone or watch. In someexamples, additional or alternative information can additionally bepresented with the approved transaction notification including, but notlimited to, receipts, special offers, coupons, or loyalty programinformation.

As mentioned above, the service provider 1412 can provide, among otherservices, payment processing services, inventory management services,catalog management services, business banking services, financingservices, lending services, reservation management services,web-development services, payroll services, employee managementservices, appointment services, loyalty tracking services, restaurantmanagement services, order management services, fulfillment services,peer-to-peer payment services, onboarding services, identityverification (IDV) services, and so on. In some examples, the users 1414can access all of the services of the service provider 1412. In otherexamples, the users 1414 can have gradated access to the services, whichcan be based on risk tolerance, IDV outputs, subscriptions, and so on.In at least one example, access to such services can be availed to thesellers 1416 via the POS application 1418. In additional or alternativeexamples, each service can be associated with its own access point(e.g., application, web browser, etc.).

The service provider 1412 can offer payment processing services forprocessing payments on behalf of the sellers 1416, as described above.For example, the service provider 1412 can provision payment processingsoftware, payment processing hardware and/or payment processing servicesto sellers 1416, as described above, to enable the sellers 1416 toreceive payments from the buyers 1420 when conducting POS transactionswith the buyers 1420. For instance, the service provider 1412 can enablethe sellers 1416 to receive cash payments, payment card payments, and/orelectronic payments from buyers 1420 for POS transactions and theservice provider 1412 can process transactions on behalf of the sellers1416.

As the service provider 1412 processes transactions on behalf of thesellers 1416, the service provider 1412 can maintain accounts orbalances for the sellers 1416 in one or more ledgers. For example, theservice provider 1412 can analyze transaction data received for atransaction to determine an amount of funds owed to a seller 1416(A) forthe transaction. In at least one example, such an amount can be a totalpurchase price less fees charged by the service provider 1412 forproviding the payment processing services. Based on determining theamount of funds owed to the seller 1416(A), the service provider 1412can deposit funds into an account of the seller 1416(A). The account canhave a stored balance, which can be managed by the service provider1412. The account can be different from a conventional bank account atleast because the stored balance is managed by a ledger of the serviceprovider 1412 and the associated funds are accessible via variouswithdrawal channels including, but not limited to, scheduled deposit,same-day deposit, instant deposit, and a linked payment instrument.

A scheduled deposit can occur when the service provider 1412 transfersfunds associated with a stored balance of the seller 1416(A) to a bankaccount of the seller 1416(A) that is held at a bank or other financialinstitution (e.g., associated with the server computing device(s) 1410).Scheduled deposits can occur at a prearranged time after a POStransaction is funded, which can be a business day after the POStransaction occurred, or sooner or later. In some examples, the seller1416(A) can access funds prior to a scheduled deposit. For instance, theseller 1416(A) may have access to same-day deposits (e.g., wherein theservice provider 1412 deposits funds from the stored balance to a linkedbank account of the seller on a same day as POS transaction, in someexamples prior to the POS transaction being funded) or instant deposits(e.g., wherein the service provider 1412 deposits funds from the storedbalance to a linked bank account of the seller on demand, such asresponsive to a request). Further, in at least one example, the seller1416(A) can have a payment instrument that is linked to the storedbalance that enables the seller to access the funds without firsttransferring the funds from the account managed by the service provider1412 to the bank account of the seller 1416(A).

In at least one example, the service provider 1412 may provide inventorymanagement services. That is, the service provider 1412 may provideinventory tracking and reporting. Inventory management services mayenable the seller 1416(A) to access and manage a database storing dataassociated with a quantity of each item that the seller 1416(A) hasavailable (i.e., an inventory). Furthermore, in at least one example,the service provider 1412 can provide catalog management services toenable the seller 1416(A) to maintain a catalog, which can be a databasestoring data associated with items that the seller 1416(A) has availablefor acquisition (i.e., catalog management services). In at least oneexample, the catalog may include a plurality of data items and a dataitem of the plurality of data items may represent an item that theseller 1461(A) has available for acquisition. The service provider 1412can offer recommendations related to pricing of the items, placement ofitems on the catalog, and multi-party fulfilment of the inventory.

In at least one example, the service provider 1412 can provide businessbanking services, which allow the seller 1416(A) to track deposits (frompayment processing and/or other sources of funds) into an account of theseller 1416(A), payroll payments from the account (e.g., payments toemployees of the seller 1416(A)), payments to other sellers (e.g.,business-to-business) directly from the account or from a linked debitcard, withdrawals made via scheduled deposit and/or instant deposit,etc. Furthermore, the business banking services can enable the seller1416(A) to obtain a customized payment instrument (e.g., credit card),check how much money they are earning (e.g., via presentation ofavailable earned balance), understand where their money is going (e.g.,via deposit reports (which can include a breakdown of fees), spendreports, etc.), access/use earned money (e.g., via scheduled deposit,instant deposit, linked payment instrument, etc.), feel in control oftheir money (e.g., via management of deposit schedule, deposit speed,linked instruments, etc.), etc. Moreover, the business banking servicescan enable the sellers 1416 to visualize their cash flow to track theirfinancial health, set aside money for upcoming obligations (e.g.,savings), organize money around goals, etc.

In at least one example, the service provider 1412 can provide financingservices and products, such as via business loans, consumer loans, fixedterm loans, flexible term loans, and the like. In at least one example,the service provider 1412 can utilize one or more risk signals todetermine whether to extend financing offers and/or terms associatedwith such financing offers.

In at least one example, the service provider 1412 can provide financingservices for offering and/or lending a loan to a borrower that is to beused for, in some instances, financing the borrower's short-termoperational needs (e.g., a capital loan). For instance, a potentialborrower that is a seller can obtain a capital loan via a capital loanproduct in order to finance various operational costs (e.g., rent,payroll, inventory, etc.). In at least one example, the service provider1412 can offer different types of capital loan products. For instance,in at least one example, the service provider 1412 can offer a dailyrepayment loan product, wherein a capital loan is repaid daily, forinstance, from a portion of transactions processed by the paymentprocessing service on behalf of the borrower. Additionally and/oralternatively, the service provider 1412 can offer a monthly repaymentloan product, wherein a capital loan is repaid monthly, for instance,via a debit from a bank account linked to the payment processingservice. The credit risk of the seller may be evaluated using riskmodels that take into account factors, such as payment volume, creditrisk of similarly situated sellers, past transaction history,seasonality, credit history, and so on.

Additionally or alternatively, the service provider 1412 can providefinancing services for offering and/or lending a loan to a borrower thatis to be used for, in some instances, financing the borrower's consumerpurchase (e.g., a consumer loan). In at least one example, a borrowercan submit a request for a loan to enable the borrower to purchase anitem from a seller, which can be one of the sellers 1416. The serviceprovider 1412 can create the loan based at least in part on determiningthat the borrower purchased or intends to purchase the item from theseller. The loan can be associated with a balance based on an actualpurchase price of the item and the borrower can repay the loan overtime. In some examples, the borrower can repay the loan viainstallments, which can be paid via funds managed and/or maintained bythe service provider 1412 (e.g., from payments owed to the seller frompayments processed on behalf of the seller, funds transferred to theseller, etc.). The service provider 1412 can offer specific financialproducts, such as payment instruments, tied specifically to the loanproducts. For example, in one implementation, the server provider 1412associates capital to a seller or buyer's debit card, where the use ofthe debit card is defined by the terms of the loan. In some examples,the seller may only use the debit card for making specific purchases. Inother examples, the “installment” associated with the loan product iscredited directly via the payment instrument. The payment instrument isthus customized to the loan and/or the parties associated with the loan.

The service provider 1412 can provide web-development services, whichenable users 1414 who are unfamiliar with HTML, XML, JavaScript, CSS, orother web design tools to create and maintain professional andaesthetically pleasing websites. Some of these web page editingapplications allow users to build a web page and/or modify a web page(e.g., change, add, or remove content associated with a web page).Further, in addition to websites, the web-development services cancreate and maintain other online omni-channel presences, such as socialmedia posts for example. In some examples, the resulting web page(s)and/or other content items can be used for offering item(s) for sale viaan online/e-commerce platform. That is, the resulting web page(s) and/orother content items can be associated with an online store or offeringby the one or more of the sellers 1416. In at least one example, theservice provider 1412 can recommend and/or create content items tosupplement omni-channel presences of the sellers 1416. That is, if aseller of the sellers 1416 has a web page, the service provider 1412—viathe web-development or other services—can recommend and/or createadditional content items to be presented via other channel(s), such associal media, email, etc.

Furthermore, the service provider 1412 can provide payroll services toenable employers to pay employees for work performed on behalf ofemployers. In at least one example, the service provider 1412 canreceive data that includes time worked by an employee (e.g., throughimported timecards and/or POS interactions), sales made by the employee,gratuities received by the employee, and so forth. Based on such data,the service provider 1412 can make payroll payments to employee(s) onbehalf of an employer via the payroll service. For instance, the serviceprovider 1412 can facilitate the transfer of a total amount to be paidout for the payroll of an employee from the bank of the employer to thebank of the service provider 1412 to be used to make payroll payments.In at least one example, when the funds have been received at the bankof the service provider 1412, the service provider 1412 can pay theemployee, such as by check or direct deposit, often a day, a week, ormore after when the work was actually performed by the employee. Inadditional or alternative examples, the service provider 1412 can enableemployee(s) to receive payments via same-day or instant deposit based atleast in part on risk and/or reliability analyses performed by theservice provider 1412.

Moreover, in at least one example, the service provider 1412 can provideemployee management services for managing schedules of employees.Further, the service provider 1412 can provide appointment services forenabling users 1414 to set schedules for scheduling appointments and/orusers 1414 to schedule appointments.

In some examples, the service provider 1412 can provide restaurantmanagement services to enable users 1414 to make and/or managereservations, to monitor front-of-house and/or back-of-house operations,and so on. In such examples, the seller device(s) 1408 and/or servercomputing device(s) 1402 can be configured to communicate with one ormore other computing devices, which can be located in the front-of-house(e.g., POS device(s)) and/or back-of-house (e.g., kitchen displaysystem(s) (KDS)). In at least one example, the service provider 1412 canprovide order management services and/or fulfillment services to enablerestaurants to manage open tickets, split tickets, and so on and/ormanage fulfillment services. In some examples, such services can beassociated with restaurant sellers, as described above. In additional oralternative examples, such services can be any type of seller.

In at least one example, the service provider 1412 can providefulfilment services, which can use couriers for delivery, whereincouriers can travel between multiple locations to provide deliveryservices, photography services, etc. Couriers can be users 1414 who cantravel between locations to perform services for a requesting user 1414(e.g., deliver items, capture images, etc.). In some examples, thecourier can receive compensation from the service provider 1412. Thecourier can employ one or more vehicles, such as automobiles, bicycles,scooters, motorcycles, buses, airplanes, helicopters, boats,skateboards, etc. Although, in other instances the courier can travel byfoot or otherwise without a vehicle. Some examples discussed hereinenable people to participate as couriers in a type of crowdsourcedservice economy. Here, essentially any person with a mobile device isable to immediately become a courier, or cease to be a courier, in acourier network that provides services as described herein. In at leastone example, the couriers can be unmanned aerial vehicles (e.g.,drones), autonomous vehicles, or any other type of vehicle capable ofreceiving instructions for traveling between locations. In someexamples, the service provider 1412 can receive requests for courierservices, automatically assign the requests to active couriers, andcommunicate dispatch instructions to couriers via user interface (e.g.,application, web browser, or other access point) presented viarespective devices 1406.

In some examples, the service provider 1412 can provide omni-channelfulfillment services. For instance, if a buyer places an order with aseller and the seller cannot fulfill the order because one or more itemsare out of stock or otherwise unavailable, the service provider 1412 canleverage other sellers and/or sales channels that are part of theplatform of the service provider 1412 to fulfill the buyer's order. Thatis, another seller can provide the one or more items to fulfill theorder of the buyer. Furthermore, in some examples, another sales channel(e.g., online, brick-and-mortar, etc.) can be used to fulfill the orderof the buyer.

In some examples, the service provider 1412 can enable conversationalcommerce via conversational commerce services, which can use one or moremachine learning mechanisms to analyze messages exchanged between two ormore users 1414, voice inputs into a virtual assistant or the like, todetermine intents of user(s) 1414. In some examples, the serviceprovider 1412 can utilize determined intents to automate buyer service,offer promotions, provide recommendations, or otherwise interact withbuyers in real-time. In at least one example, the service provider 1412can integrate products and services, and payment mechanisms into acommunication platform (e.g., messaging, etc.) to enable buyers to makepurchases, or otherwise transact, without having to call, email, orvisit a web page or other channel of a seller. That is, conversationalcommerce alleviates the need for buyers to toggle back and forth betweenconversations and web pages to gather information and make purchases.

In at least one example, the service provider 1412 can provide apeer-to-peer payment service that enables peer-to-peer payments betweentwo or more users 1414. In at least one example, the service provider1412 can communicate with instances of a payment application (or otheraccess point) installed on devices 1406 configured for operation byusers 1414. In an example, an instance of the payment applicationexecuting on a first device operated by a payor can send a request tothe service provider 1412 to transfer an amount of funds (e.g., fiatcurrency or non-fiat currency such as cryptocurrency, securities, andrelated assets) from an account of the payor to an account of a payee(e.g., a peer-to-peer payment). The service provider 1412 can facilitatethe transfer and can send a notification to an instance of the paymentapplication executing on a second mobile device operated by the payeethat the transfer is in process (or has been completed). In someexamples, the service provider 1412 can send additional or alternativeinformation to the instances of the payment application (e.g., lowbalance to the payor, current balance to the payor or the payee, etc.).In some implementations, the payor and/or payee can be identifiedautomatically, e.g., based on context, proximity, prior transactionhistory, and so on. In other examples, the payee can send a request forfunds to the payor prior to the payor initiating the transfer of funds.The funds transferred can be associated with any digital currency type,including, but not limited to, cash, cryptocurrency, etc. In someembodiments, the service provider 1412 funds the request to payee onbehalf of the payor, to speed up the transfer process and compensate forany lags that may be attributed to payor's financial network.

In some implementations, the service provider 1412 can trigger thepeer-to-peer payment process through identification of a “payment proxy”having a particular syntax. For example, the syntax includes a monetarycurrency indicator prefixing one or more alphanumeric characters (e.g.,$Cash). The currency indicator operates as the tagging mechanism thatindicates to a computer system to treat the inputs as a request from thesender to transfer cash, where detection of the syntax (which includesone or more alphanumeric characters tagged by a monetary currencyindicator) triggers a transfer of cash. The currency indicator cancorrespond to various currencies including but not limited to, dollar($), euro (€), pound (£), rupee (

), yuan (¥), etc. Although use of the dollar currency indicator ($) isused herein, it is to be understood that any currency symbol couldequally be used. The peer-to-peer process can be initiated through aparticular application executing on the user devices 1406.

In some embodiments, the peer-to-peer process can be implemented withina forum context. The term “forum,” as used here, refers to a contentprovider's media channel (e.g., a social networking platform, amicroblog, a blog, video sharing platform, a music sharing platform,etc.) that enables user interaction and engagement through comments,posts, messages on electronic bulletin boards, messages on a socialnetworking platform, and/or any other types of messages. The forum canbe employed by a content provider to enable users of the forum tointeract with one another, (e.g., through creating messages, postingcomments, etc.). In some embodiments, “forum” may also refer to anapplication or webpage of an e-commerce or retail organization thatoffers products and/or services. Such websites can provide an online“form” to complete before or after the products or services are added toa virtual cart. The online form may include one or more fields toreceive user interaction and engagement. Examples include name and otheridentification of the user, shipping address of the user, etc. Some ofthese fields may be configured to receive payment information, such as apayment proxy, in lieu of other kinds of payment mechanisms, such ascredit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, gift cards, virtual wallets,etc.

In some embodiments, the peer-to-peer process can be implemented withina communication application context, such as a messaging applicationcontext. The term “messaging application,” as used here, refers to anymessaging application that enables communication between users (e.g.,sender and recipient of a message) over a wired or wirelesscommunications network, through use of a communication message. Themessaging application can be employed by the service provider 1412. Forinstance, the service provider 1412 can offer messaging services thatprovides a communication service to users via a messaging application(e.g., chat or messaging capability). The messaging application caninclude, for example, a text messaging application for communicationbetween phones (e.g., conventional mobile telephones or smartphones), ora cross-platform instant messaging application for smartphones andphones that use the Internet for communication. The messagingapplication can be executed on a user device 1406 (e.g., mobile deviceor conventional personal computer (PC)) based on instructionstransmitted to and from the server computing device(s) 1402 (which, insuch an example can be called a “messaging server”). In some instances,the messaging application can include a payment application withmessaging capability that enables users of the payment application tocommunicate with one another. In such instances, the payment applicationcan be executed on the user device 1406 based on instructionstransmitted to and from the server computing device(s) 1402 (e.g., thepayment service discussed in this description or another payment servicethat supports payment transactions).

In at least some embodiments, the peer-to-peer process can beimplemented within a landing page context. The term “landing page,” asused here, refers to a virtual location identified by a personalizedlocation address that is dedicated to collect payments on behalf of arecipient associated with the personalized location address. Thepersonalized location address that identifies the landing page caninclude a payment proxy discussed above. The service provider 1412 cancreate the landing page to enable the recipient to conveniently receiveone or more payments from one or more senders. In some embodiments, thepersonalized location address identifying the landing page is a uniformresource locator (URL) that incorporates the payment proxy. In suchembodiments, the landing page is a web page, e.g., www. cash.me/$Cash.

In at least one example, a user 1414 may be new to the service provider1412 such that the user 1414 that has not registered (e.g., subscribedto receive access to one or more services offered by the serviceprovider) with the service provider 1412. The service provider 1412 canoffer onboarding services for registering a potential user 1414 with theservice provider 1412. In some examples, onboarding can involvepresenting various questions, prompts, and the like to a potential user1414 to obtain information that can be used to create a profile for thepotential user 1414. In at least one example, the service provider 1412can provide limited or short-term access to its services prior to, orduring, onboarding (e.g., a user of a peer-to-peer payment service cantransfer and/or receive funds prior to being fully onboarded, a sellercan process payments prior to being fully onboarded, etc.). In at leastone example, responsive to the potential user 1414 providing allnecessary information, the potential user 1414 can be onboarded to theservice provider 1412. In such an example, any limited or short-termaccess to services of the service provider 1412 can be transitioned tomore permissive (e.g., less limited) or longer-term access to suchservices.

The service provider 1412 can be associated with IDV services, which canbe used by the service provider 1412 for compliance purposes and/or canbe offered as a service, for instance to third-party service providers(e.g., associated with the server computing device(s) 1410). That is,the service provider 1412 can offer IDV services to verify the identityof users 1414 seeking to use or using their services. Identityverification requires a buyer (or potential buyer) to provideinformation that is used by compliance departments to prove that theinformation is associated with an identity of a real person or entity.In at least one example, the service provider 1412 can perform servicesfor determining whether identifying information provided by a user 1414accurately identifies the buyer (or potential buyer) (i.e., Is the buyerwho they say they are?).

The service provider 1412 is capable of providing additional oralternative services and the services described above are offered as asampling of services. In at least one example, the service provider 1412can exchange data with the server computing device(s) 1410 associatedwith third-party service providers. Such third-party service providerscan provide information that enables the service provider 1412 toprovide services, such as those described above. In additional oralternative examples, such third-party service providers can accessservices of the service provider 1412. That is, in some examples, thethird-party service providers can be subscribers, or otherwise access,services of the service provider 1412.

Techniques described herein can be configured to operate in bothreal-time/online and offline modes. “Online” modes refer to modes whendevices are capable of communicating with the service provider 1412(e.g., the server computing device(s) 1402) and/or the server computingdevice(s) 1410 via the network(s) 1404. In some examples, the sellerdevice(s) 1408 are not capable of connecting with the service provider1412 (e.g., the server computing device(s) 1402) and/or the servercomputing device(s) 1410, due to a network connectivity issue, forexample. In additional or alternative examples, the server computingdevice(s) 1402 are not capable of communicating with the servercomputing device(s) 1410 due to network connectivity issue, for example.In such examples, devices may operate in “offline” mode where at leastsome payment data is stored (e.g., on the seller device(s) 1408) and/orthe server computing device(s) 1402 until connectivity is restored andthe payment data can be transmitted to the server computing device(s)1402 and/or the server computing device(s) 1410 for processing.

In at least one example, the service provider 1412 can be associatedwith a hub, such as an order hub, an inventory hub, a fulfillment huband so on, which can enable integration with one or more additionalservice providers (e.g., associated with the additional server computingdevice(s) 1410). In some examples, such additional service providers canoffer additional or alternative services and the service provider 1412can provide an interface or other computer-readable instructions tointegrate functionality of the service provider 1412 into the one ormore additional service providers.

Techniques described herein are directed to services provided via adistributed system of user devices 1406 that are in communication withone or more server computing devices 1402 of the service provider 1412.That is, techniques described herein are directed to a specificimplementation—or, a practical application—of utilizing a distributedsystem of user devices 1406 that are in communication with one or moreserver computing devices 1402 of the service provider 1412 to perform avariety of services, as described above. The unconventionalconfiguration of the distributed system described herein enables theserver computing device(s) 1402 that are remotely-located from end-users(e.g., users 1414) to intelligently offer services based on aggregateddata associated with the end-users, such as the users 1414 (e.g., dataassociated with multiple, different sellers and/or multiple, differentbuyers), in some examples, in near-real time. Accordingly, techniquesdescribed herein are directed to a particular arrangement of elementsthat offer technical improvements over conventional techniques forperforming payment processing services and the like. For small businessowners in particular, the business environment is typically fragmentedand relies on unrelated tools and programs, making it difficult for anowner to manually consolidate and view such data. The techniquesdescribed herein constantly or periodically monitor disparate anddistinct seller accounts, e.g., accounts within the control of theservice provider 1412, and those outside of the control of the serviceprovider 1412, to track the business standing (payables, receivables,payroll, invoices, appointments, capital, etc.) of the sellers. Thetechniques herein provide a consolidated view of a seller's cash flow,predict needs, preemptively offer recommendations or services, such ascapital, coupons, etc., and/or enable money movement between disparateaccounts (seller's, another seller's, or even payment service's) in africtionless and transparent manner.

As described herein, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and thelike can be used to dynamically make determinations, recommendations,and the like, thereby adding intelligence and context-awareness to anotherwise one-size-fits-all scheme for providing payment processingservices and/or additional or alternative services described herein. Insome implementations, the distributed system is capable of applying theintelligence derived from an existing user base to a new user, therebymaking the onboarding experience for the new user personalized andfrictionless when compared to traditional onboarding methods. Thus,techniques described herein improve existing technological processes.

As described above, various graphical user interfaces (GUIs) can bepresented to facilitate techniques described herein. Some of thetechniques described herein are directed to user interface featurespresented via GUIs to improve interaction between users 1414 and userdevices 1406. Furthermore, such features are changed dynamically basedon the profiles of the users involved interacting with the GUIs. Assuch, techniques described herein are directed to improvements tocomputing systems.

FIG. 15 depicts an illustrative block diagram illustrating a system 1500for performing techniques described herein. The system 1500 includes auser device 1502, that communicates with server computing device(s)(e.g., server(s) 1504) via network(s) 1506 (e.g., the Internet, cablenetwork(s), cellular network(s), cloud network(s), wireless network(s)(e.g., Wi-Fi) and wired network(s), as well as close-rangecommunications such as Bluetooth®, Bluetooth® low energy (BLE), and thelike). While a single user device 1502 is illustrated, in additional oralternate examples, the system 1500 can have multiple user devices, asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 14 .

Components of the system 1500 can facilitate transacting via socialmedia interactions. As described above, a user (e.g., a seller) can postcontent via a social media platform. Such content can depict item(s)(e.g., goods and/or services). In some examples, the content can beassociated with an intent to sell an item depicted in the content (e.g.,text associated with an image indicating that the user is looking tosell an item depicted in the content). In other examples, the contentmay not be associated with an intent to sell (e.g., no explicit orimplicit indication that the user desires to sell anything depicted inthe content). Other users can respond to the post, for instance viacomment, interaction with a button or other actuation mechanism (e.g.,like, dislike, funny, love, etc.), and so on. Interested users canprovide indicators indicating their desire to purchase item(s) depictedin the content. For instance, a user can comment “mine” or “I want tobuy that [item].” The responses can be analyzed by a payment processingservice provider, which can be associated with the service provider 1412described above with reference to FIG. 14 . The payment processingservice provider can identify an interested user, access paymentinformation for the user, and/or process payment for the item. That is,the payment processing service provider can facilitate a transactionbetween the buyer and the seller for an item depicted in the contentposted via the social media platform.

In at least one example, techniques performed by components of thesystem 1500 can alleviate the need for users interested in selling viasocial media platforms to perform any action that they usually wouldn'tperform prior to posting content to social media platforms. That is,users interested in selling via social media platforms can simply postcontent to one or more social media platforms and techniques describedherein are directed to creating selling opportunities and facilitatingtransactions based on such content.

As described above, components of the system 1500 can identifypurchasing intent of other users and can create a selling opportunityeven when one did not originally exist (e.g., at the time the contentwas posted). That is, if a user posts content that is not associatedwith an intent to sell, the service provider 1412 can neverthelesscreate a record of item(s) associated with the content at some timeafter the content is posted and can monitor responses to facilitate atransaction.

As described above, users of social media platforms (e.g., websites,applications, and other network-based communication tools provided bysocial media service providers) leverage social media tools for onlinecommerce (“ecommerce”). However, current technology has limitations, asdescribed above. In some examples, a user interested in purchasing anitem posted via social media is required to follow-up with the sellervia another communication tool (e.g., email, text message, privatemessage, etc.) to coordinate the purchase. Such systems introduceunnecessary lag due to response times associated with the users.Furthermore, the current infrastructure does not allow automaticfiltering of the users and puts the onus on the seller on whether or notto initiate a conversation with the interested users, engage in afinancial transaction with them, and so on. In other examples, a user isdirected to a webpage (usually different from the webpage or platformwhere the interaction originated) where the user is then required to addan item to a virtual cart and provide payment data to complete an onlinetransaction. As such, a social media platform has to establishcommunication interfaces between disparate platforms, for examplebetween a social media platform (that allows interaction between twousers) and a payment platform (that facilitates payment transactions).These communication interfaces have to meet security protocols to allowsecure communications, such as exchange of financial data. Existingtechnology also introduces friction when users intend to purchase itemsvia social media platforms. That is, users—both buyers and sellers—arerequired to perform multiple actions to facilitate a transaction, whichcan include multiple exchanges of communications, multiple clicksthrough multiple web pages, interactions or sign-ups with multipleplatforms, or the like. As such, current technology is inefficient andis not user friendly. Components of the system 1500 described hereinenable frictionless (or near-frictionless) transactions via interactionswith social media content. Thus, techniques described herein offerimprovements to existing technology.

In some examples, existing techniques directed to comment selling allowsellers to post images of items available for sale via social mediaplatforms, harvest comments, and turn such comments into invoices.However, in such examples, existing techniques require users to createrecords for items to be sold via social media posts prior to posting theitems via social media platforms. That is, existing techniques requireusers to provide an image, description of the image, quantity available,sizes (if applicable), etc. Such information is used to create contentthat can be posted to a social media platform, with an identifier toidentify a previously created record. Users can comment when they wantto purchase an item and the previously created record can be used tocreate an invoice and facilitate a transaction. That is, existingtechniques require users to perform various actions prior to postingcontent to a social media platform. For instance, sellers are requiredto input a significant amount of information prior to posting content tosocial media platforms. As such, existing techniques require the storageof such content and associated records and introduce unnecessary lag dueto time required to input such information and otherwise set up records.Components of the system 1500 described herein enables improvements tocurrent technology by alleviating required actions prior to postingcontent via social media platforms. In at least one example, techniquesdescribed herein reduce storage requirements by enabling record(s) ofitem(s) associated with the content to be created at some time after thecontent is posted (e.g., without the seller(s) having implicitly orexplicitly indicated an intent to sell). Furthermore, techniquesdescribed herein enable users to use social media platforms consistentwith how social media platforms are intended to be used, withoutrequiring additional actions to be performed before content is shared.That is, techniques described herein can alleviate the need for a socialmedia platform to establish communication interfaces between disparateplatforms yet can offer the ability for sellers to sell items via asocial media platform using secure communications. As such, techniquesdescribed herein are directed to improvements over existingtechnologies.

In at least one example, the user device 1502 can be any suitable typeof computing device, e.g., portable, semi-portable, semi-stationary, orstationary. Some examples of the user device 1502 can include, but arenot limited to, a tablet computing device, a smart phone or mobilecommunication device, a laptop, a netbook or other portable computer orsemi-portable computer, a desktop computing device, a terminal computingdevice or other semi-stationary or stationary computing device, adedicated device, a wearable computing device or other body-mountedcomputing device, an augmented reality device, a virtual reality device,an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc. That is, the user device 1502can be any computing device capable of sending communications andperforming the functions according to the techniques described herein.The user device 1502 can include devices, e.g., payment card readers, orcomponents capable of accepting payments, as described below.

In the illustrated example, the user device 1502 includes one or moreprocessors 1508, one or more computer-readable media 1510, one or morecommunication interface(s) 1512, one or more input/output (I/O) devices1514, a display 1516, and sensor(s) 1518.

In at least one example, each processor 1508 can itself comprise one ormore processors or processing cores. For example, the processor(s) 1508can be implemented as one or more microprocessors, microcomputers,microcontrollers, digital signal processors, central processing units,state machines, logic circuitries, and/or any devices that manipulatesignals based on operational instructions. In some examples, theprocessor(s) 1508 can be one or more hardware processors and/or logiccircuits of any suitable type specifically programmed or configured toexecute the algorithms and processes described herein. The processor(s)1508 can be configured to fetch and execute computer-readableprocessor-executable instructions stored in the computer-readable media1510.

Depending on the configuration of the user device 1502, thecomputer-readable media 1510 can be an example of tangiblenon-transitory computer storage media and can include volatile andnonvolatile memory and/or removable and non-removable media implementedin any type of technology for storage of information such ascomputer-readable processor-executable instructions, data structures,program modules or other data. The computer-readable media 1510 caninclude, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory,solid-state storage, magnetic disk storage, optical storage, and/orother computer-readable media technology. Further, in some examples, theuser device 1502 can access external storage, such as RAID storagesystems, storage arrays, network attached storage, storage areanetworks, cloud storage, or any other medium that can be used to storeinformation and that can be accessed by the processor(s) 1508 directlyor through another computing device or network. Accordingly, thecomputer-readable media 1510 can be computer storage media able to storeinstructions, modules or components that can be executed by theprocessor(s) 1508. Further, when mentioned, non-transitorycomputer-readable media exclude media such as energy, carrier signals,electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.

The computer-readable media 1510 can be used to store and maintain anynumber of functional components that are executable by the processor(s)1508. In some implementations, these functional components compriseinstructions or programs that are executable by the processor(s) 1508and that, when executed, implement operational logic for performing theactions and services attributed above to the user device 1502.Functional components stored in the computer-readable media 1510 caninclude a user interface 1520 to enable users to interact with the userdevice 1502, and thus the server(s) 1504 and/or other networked devices.In at least one example, the user interface 1520 can be presented via aweb browser, or the like. In other examples, the user interface 1520 canbe presented via an application, such as a mobile application or desktopapplication, which can be provided by a service provider 1412 associatedwith the server(s) 1504, or which can be an otherwise dedicatedapplication. In some examples, the user interface 1520 can be one of theuser interface(s) 122 and/or 124 described above with reference to FIGS.1 and 2 . In at least one example, a user can interact with the userinterface via touch input, spoken input, gesture, or any other type ofinput. The word “input” is also used to describe “contextual” input thatmay not be directly provided by the user via the user interface 1520.For example, user's interactions with the user interface 1520 areanalyzed using, e.g., natural language processing techniques, todetermine context or intent of the user, which may be treated in amanner similar to “direct” user input.

Depending on the type of the user device 1502, the computer-readablemedia 1510 can also optionally include other functional components anddata, such as other modules and data 1522, which can include programs,drivers, etc., and the data used or created by the functionalcomponents. In addition, the computer-readable media 1510 can also storedata, data structures and the like, that are used by the functionalcomponents. Further, the user device 1502 can include many otherlogical, programmatic and physical components, of which those describedare merely examples that are related to the discussion herein.

In at least one example, the computer-readable media 1510 can includeadditional functional components, such as an operating system 1524 forcontrolling and managing various functions of the user device 1502 andfor enabling basic user interactions.

The communication interface(s) 1512 can include one or more interfacesand hardware components for enabling communication with various otherdevices, such as over the network(s) 1506 or directly. For example,communication interface(s) 1512 can enable communication through one ormore network(s) 1506, which can include, but are not limited any type ofnetwork known in the art, such as a local area network or a wide areanetwork, such as the Internet, and can include a wireless network, suchas a cellular network, a cloud network, a local wireless network, suchas Wi-Fi and/or close-range wireless communications, such as Bluetooth®,BLE, NFC, RFID, a wired network, or any other such network, or anycombination thereof. Accordingly, network(s) 1506 can include both wiredand/or wireless communication technologies, including Bluetooth®, BLE,Wi-Fi and cellular communication technologies, as well as wired or fiberoptic technologies. Components used for such communications can dependat least in part upon the type of network, the environment selected, orboth. Protocols for communicating over such networks are well known andwill not be discussed herein in detail.

Embodiments of the disclosure may be provided to users through a cloudcomputing infrastructure. Cloud computing refers to the provision ofscalable computing resources as a service over a network, to enableconvenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurablecomputing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released withminimal management effort or service provider interaction. Thus, cloudcomputing allows a user to access virtual computing resources (e.g.,storage, data, applications, and even complete virtualized computingsystems) in “the cloud,” without regard for the underlying physicalsystems (or locations of those systems) used to provide the computingresources.

The user device 1502 can further include one or more input/output (I/O)devices 1514. The I/O devices 1514 can include speakers, a microphone, acamera, and various user controls (e.g., buttons, a joystick, akeyboard, a keypad, etc.), a haptic output device, and so forth. The I/Odevices 1514 can also include attachments that leverage the accessories(audio-jack, USB-C, Bluetooth, etc.) to connect with the user device1502.

In at least one example, user device 1502 can include a display 1516.Depending on the type of computing device(s) used as the user device1502, the display 1516 can employ any suitable display technology. Forexample, the display 1516 can be a liquid crystal display, a plasmadisplay, a light emitting diode display, an OLED (organic light-emittingdiode) display, an electronic paper display, or any other suitable typeof display able to present digital content thereon. In at least oneexample, the display 1516 can be an augmented reality display, avirtually reality display, or any other display able to present and/orproject digital content. In some examples, the display 1516 can have atouch sensor associated with the display 1516 to provide a touchscreendisplay configured to receive touch inputs for enabling interaction witha graphic interface presented on the display 1516. Accordingly,implementations herein are not limited to any particular displaytechnology. Alternatively, in some examples, the user device 1502 maynot include the display 1516, and information can be presented by othermeans, such as aurally, hapticly, etc.

In addition, the user device 1502 can include sensor(s) 1518. Thesensor(s) 1518 can include a GPS device able to indicate locationinformation. Further, the sensor(s) 1518 can include, but are notlimited to, an accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, proximity sensor,camera, microphone, and/or a switch.

In some example, the GPS device can be used to identify a location of auser. In at least one example, the location of the user can be used bythe service provider 1412, described above, to provide one or moreservices. That is, in some examples, the service provider 1412 canimplement geofencing to provide particular services to users. As anexample, with a lending service, location can be used to confirm that astated purpose of a loan corresponds to evidence of use (e.g., Is theuser using the loan consistent with what he or she said he or she wasgoing to use it for?). Furthermore, in some examples, location can beused for payroll purposes. As an example, if a contractor completes aproject, the contractor can provide a geo-tagged image (e.g., taggedbased on location information availed by the GPS device). In someexamples, location can be used for facilitating peer-to-peer paymentsbetween nearby users 1414 and/or for sending users 1414 notificationsregarding available appointments with seller(s) located proximate to theusers 1414. In at least one example, location can be used for takingpayments from nearby buyers when they leave a geofence, or location canbe used to initiate an action responsive to users 1414 enter abrick-and-mortar store of a seller. Location can be used in additionalor alternative ways as well.

Additionally, the user device 1502 can include various other componentsthat are not shown, examples of which include removable storage, a powersource, such as a battery and power control unit, a barcode scanner, aprinter, a cash drawer, and so forth.

In addition, in some examples, the user device 1502 can include, beconnectable to, or otherwise be coupled to a reader device 1526, forreading payment instruments and/or identifiers associated with paymentobjects. In some examples, as described above, the reader device 1526can plug in to a port in the user device 1502, such as a microphoneport, a headphone port, an audio-jack, a data port, or other suitableport. In additional or alternative examples, the reader device 1526 canbe coupled to the user device 1502 via another wired or wirelessconnection, such as via a Bluetooth®, BLE, and so on. The reader device1526 can include a read head for reading a magnetic strip of a paymentcard, and further can include encryption technology for encrypting theinformation read from the magnetic strip. Additionally or alternatively,the reader device 1526 can be an EMV payment reader, which in someexamples, can be embedded in the user device 1502. Moreover, numerousother types of readers can be employed with the user device 1502 herein,depending on the type and configuration of the user device 1502.

The reader device 1526 may be a portable magnetic stripe card reader,optical scanner, smartcard (card with an embedded IC chip) reader (e.g.,an EMV-compliant card reader or short-range communication-enabledreader), RFID reader, or the like, configured to detect and obtain dataoff any payment instrument. Accordingly, the reader device 1526 mayinclude hardware implementation, such as slots, magnetic tracks, andrails with one or more sensors or electrical contacts to facilitatedetection and acceptance of a payment instrument. That is, the readerdevice 1526 may include hardware implementations to enable the readerdevice 1526 to interact with a payment instrument via a swipe (i.e., acard-present transaction where a buyer slides a card having a magneticstrip through a payment reader that captures payment data contained inthe magnetic strip), a dip (i.e., a card-present transaction where abuyer inserts a card having an embedded microchip (i.e., chip) into apayment reader first until the payment reader prompts the buyer toremove the card), or a tap (i.e., a card-present transaction where abuyer may tap or hover his or her electronic device such as a smartphone running a payment application over a payment reader to complete atransaction via short-range communication) to obtain payment dataassociated with a buyer. Additionally or optionally, the reader device1526 may also include a biometric sensor to receive and processbiometric characteristics and process them as payment instruments, giventhat such biometric characteristics are registered with the paymentprocessing service provider and connected to a financial account with abank server.

The reader device 1526 may include processing unit(s), computer-readablemedia, a reader chip, a transaction chip, a timer, a clock, a networkinterface, a power supply, and so on. The processing unit(s) of thereader device 1526 may execute one or more modules and/or processes tocause the reader device 1526 to perform a variety of functions, as setforth above and explained in further detail in the following disclosure.In some examples, the processing unit(s) may include a centralprocessing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a CPU and aGPU, or processing units or components known in the art. Additionally,each of the processing unit(s) may possess its own local memory, whichalso may store program modules, program data, and/or one or moreoperating systems. Depending on the exact configuration and type of thereader device 1526, the computer-readable media may include volatilememory (such as RAM), non-volatile memory (such as ROM, flash memory,miniature hard drive, memory card, or the like), or some combinationthereof. In at least one example, the computer-readable media of thereader device 1526 may include at least one module for performingvarious functions as described herein.

The reader chip may perform functionalities to control the operationsand processing of the reader device 1526. That is, the reader chip mayperform functionalities to control payment interfaces (e.g., acontactless interface, a contact interface, etc.), a wirelesscommunication interface, a wired interface, a user interface (e.g., asignal condition device (FPGA)), etc. Additionally, the reader chip mayperform functionality to control the timer, which may provide a timersignal indicating an amount of time that has lapsed following aparticular event (e.g., an interaction, a power-down event, etc.).Moreover, the reader chip may perform functionality to control the clock156, which may provide a clock signal indicating a time. Furthermore,the reader chip may perform functionality to control the networkinterface, which may interface with the network(s) 1506, as describedbelow.

Additionally, the reader chip may perform functionality to control thepower supply. The power supply may include one or more power suppliessuch as a physical connection to AC power or a battery. Power supply mayinclude power conversion circuitry for converting AC power and creatinga plurality of DC voltages for use by components of reader device 1526.When power supply includes a battery, the battery may be charged via aphysical power connection, via inductive charging, or via any othersuitable method.

The transaction chip may perform functionalities relating to processingof payment transactions, interfacing with payment instruments,cryptography, and other payment-specific functionality. That is, thetransaction chip may access payment data associated with a paymentinstrument and may provide the payment data to a POS terminal, asdescribed above. The payment data may include, but is not limited to, aname of the buyer, an address of the buyer, a type (e.g., credit, debit,etc.) of a payment instrument, a number associated with the paymentinstrument, a verification value (e.g., PIN Verification Key Indicator(PVKI), PIN Verification Value (PVV), Card Verification Value (CVV),Card Verification Code (CVC), etc.) associated with the paymentinstrument, an expiration data associated with the payment instrument, aprimary account number (PAN) corresponding to the buyer (which may ormay not match the number associated with the payment instrument),restrictions on what types of charges/debts may be made, etc.Additionally, the transaction chip may encrypt the payment data uponreceiving the payment data.

It should be understood that in some examples, the reader chip may haveits own processing unit(s) and computer-readable media and/or thetransaction chip may have its own processing unit(s) andcomputer-readable media. In other examples, the functionalities ofreader chip and transaction chip may be embodied in a single chip or aplurality of chips, each including any suitable combination ofprocessing units and computer-readable media to collectively perform thefunctionalities of reader chip and transaction chip as described herein.

While, the user device 1502, which can be a POS terminal, and the readerdevice 1526 are shown as separate devices, in additional or alternativeexamples, the user device 1502 and the reader device 1526 can be part ofa single device, which may be a battery-operated device. In such anexample, components of both the user device 1502 and the reader device1526 may be associated with the single device. In some examples, thereader device 1526 can have a display integrated therewith, which can bein addition to (or as an alternative of) the display 1516 associatedwith the user device 1502.

The server(s) 1504 can include one or more servers or other types ofcomputing devices that can be embodied in any number of ways. Forexample, in the example of a server, the modules, other functionalcomponents, and data can be implemented on a single server, a cluster ofservers, a server farm or data center, a cloud-hosted computing service,a cloud-hosted storage service, and so forth, although other computerarchitectures can additionally or alternatively be used.

Further, while the figures illustrate the components and data of theserver(s) 1504 as being present in a single location, these componentsand data can alternatively be distributed across different computingdevices and different locations in any manner. Consequently, thefunctions can be implemented by one or more server computing devices,with the various functionality described above distributed in variousways across the different computing devices. Multiple server(s) 1504 canbe located together or separately, and organized, for example, asvirtual servers, server banks and/or server farms. The describedfunctionality can be provided by the servers of a single seller orenterprise or can be provided by the servers and/or services of multipledifferent buyers or enterprises.

In the illustrated example, the server(s) 1504 can include one or moreprocessors 1528, one or more computer-readable media 1530, one or moreI/O devices 1532, and one or more communication interfaces 1534. Eachprocessor 1528 can be a single processing unit or a number of processingunits and can include single or multiple computing units or multipleprocessing cores. The processor(s) 1528 can be implemented as one ormore microprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signalprocessors, central processing units, state machines, logic circuitries,and/or any devices that manipulate signals based on operationalinstructions. For example, the processor(s) 1528 can be one or morehardware processors and/or logic circuits of any suitable typespecifically programmed or configured to execute the algorithms andprocesses described herein. The processor(s) 1528 can be configured tofetch and execute computer-readable instructions stored in thecomputer-readable media 1530, which can program the processor(s) 1528 toperform the functions described herein.

The computer-readable media 1530 can include volatile and nonvolatilememory and/or removable and non-removable media implemented in any typeof technology for storage of information, such as computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. Suchcomputer-readable media 1530 can include, but is not limited to, RAM,ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, optical storage,solid state storage, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage, RAID storagesystems, storage arrays, network attached storage, storage areanetworks, cloud storage, or any other medium that can be used to storethe desired information and that can be accessed by a computing device.Depending on the configuration of the server(s) 1504, thecomputer-readable media 1530 can be a type of computer-readable storagemedia and/or can be a tangible non-transitory media to the extent thatwhen mentioned, non-transitory computer-readable media exclude mediasuch as energy, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals perse.

The computer-readable media 1530 can be used to store any number offunctional components that are executable by the processor(s) 1528. Inmany implementations, these functional components comprise instructionsor programs that are executable by the processors 1528 and that, whenexecuted, specifically configure the one or more processors 1528 toperform the actions attributed above to the service provider 1412 and/orpayment processing service. Functional components stored in thecomputer-readable media 1530 can optionally include a seller module1536, a training module 1538, and one or more other modules and data1540.

The seller module 1536 can be configured to receive transaction datafrom POS systems, such as the POS system 1424 described above withreference to FIG. 14 . The seller module 1536 can transmit requests(e.g., authorization, capture, settlement, etc.) to payment serviceserver computing device(s) to facilitate POS transactions betweensellers and buyers. The seller module 1536 can communicate the successesor failures of the POS transactions to the POS systems. The paymentprocessing module 116 described above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2can correspond to the seller module 1536.

The training module 1538 can be configured to train models usingmachine-learning mechanisms. For example, a machine-learning mechanismcan analyze training data to train a data model that creates an output,which can be a recommendation, a score, and/or another indication.Machine-learning mechanisms can include, but are not limited tosupervised learning algorithms (e.g., artificial neural networks,Bayesian statistics, support vector machines, decision trees,classifiers, k-nearest neighbor, etc.), unsupervised learning algorithms(e.g., artificial neural networks, association rule learning,hierarchical clustering, cluster analysis, etc.), semi-supervisedlearning algorithms, deep learning algorithms, etc.), statisticalmodels, etc. In at least one example, machine-trained data models can bestored in a data store(s) associated with the user device(s) 1502 and/orthe server(s) 1504 for use at a time after the data models have beentrained (e.g., at runtime).

The one or more other modules and data 1540 can include the contentmanagement module 114 and the payment processing module 116, thefunctionality of which is described, at least partially, above. Further,the one or more other modules and data 1540 can include programs,drivers, etc., and the data used or created by the functionalcomponents. Further, the server(s) 1504 can include many other logical,programmatic and physical components, of which those described above aremerely examples that are related to the discussion herein.

The one or more “modules” referenced herein may be implemented as moremodules or as fewer modules, and functions described for the modules maybe redistributed depending on the details of the implementation. Theterm “module,” as used herein, refers broadly to software stored onnon-transitory storage medium (e.g., volatile or non-volatile memory fora computing device), hardware, or firmware (or any combination thereof)modules. Modules are typically functional such that they that may createuseful data or other output using specified input(s). A module may ormay not be self-contained. An application program (also called an“application”) may include one or more modules, or a module may includeone or more application programs that can be accessed over a network ordownloaded as software onto a device (e.g., executable code causing thedevice to perform an action). An application program (also called an“application”) may include one or more modules, or a module may includeone or more application programs. In additional and/or alternativeexamples, the module(s) may be implemented as computer-readableinstructions, various data structures, and so forth via at least oneprocessing unit to configure the computing device(s) described herein toexecute instructions and to perform operations as described herein.

In some examples, a module may include one or more applicationprogramming interfaces (APIs) to perform some or all of itsfunctionality (e.g., operations). In at least one example, a softwaredeveloper kit (SDK) can be provided by the service provider to allowthird-party developers to include service provider functionality and/oravail service provider services in association with their ownthird-party applications. Additionally or alternatively, in someexamples, the service provider can utilize a SDK to integratethird-party service provider functionality into its applications. Thatis, API(s) and/or SDK(s) can enable third-party developers to customizehow their respective third-party applications interact with the serviceprovider or vice versa. The API(s) 118, described above, can correspondto such.

The computer-readable media 1530 can additionally include an operatingsystem 1542 for controlling and managing various functions of theserver(s) 1504.

The communication interface(s) 1534 can include one or more interfacesand hardware components for enabling communication with various otherdevices, such as over the network(s) 1506 or directly. For example,communication interface(s) 1534 can enable communication through one ormore network(s) 1506, which can include, but are not limited any type ofnetwork known in the art, such as a local area network or a wide areanetwork, such as the Internet, and can include a wireless network, suchas a cellular network, a local wireless network, such as Wi-Fi and/orclose-range wireless communications, such as Bluetooth®, BLE, NFC, RFID,a wired network, or any other such network, or any combination thereof.Accordingly, network(s) 1502 can include both wired and/or wirelesscommunication technologies, including Bluetooth®, BLE, Wi-Fi andcellular communication technologies, as well as wired or fiber optictechnologies. Components used for such communications can depend atleast in part upon the type of network, the environment selected, orboth. Protocols for communicating over such networks are well known andwill not be discussed herein in detail.

The server(s) 1504 can further be equipped with various I/O devices1532. Such I/O devices 1532 can include a display, various userinterface controls (e.g., buttons, joystick, keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, biometric or sensory input devices, etc.), audio speakers,connection ports and so forth.

In at least one example, the system 1500 can include data store(s) 1544that can be configured to store data that is accessible, manageable, andupdatable. In some examples, the data store(s) 1544 can be integratedwith the user device 1502 and/or the server(s) 1504. In other examples,as shown in FIG. 15 , the data store(s) 1544 can be located remotelyfrom the server(s) 1504 and can be accessible to the server(s) 1504. Thedata store(s) 1544 can comprise multiple databases and/or serversconnected locally and/or remotely via the network(s) 1506. The datastore(s) 120, described above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 , cancorrespond to the data store(s) 1544.

In at least one example, the data store(s) 1544 can store user profiles,which can include seller profiles, buyer profiles, and so on.

Seller profiles can store, or otherwise be associated with, dataassociated with sellers. For instance, a seller profile can store, orotherwise be associated with, information about a seller (e.g., name ofthe seller, geographic location of the seller, operating hours of theseller, employee information, etc.), a seller category classification(MCC), item(s) offered for sale by the seller, hardware (e.g., devicetype) used by the seller, transaction data associated with the seller(e.g., transactions conducted by the seller, payment data associatedwith the transactions, items associated with the transactions,descriptions of items associated with the transactions, itemized and/ortotal spends of each of the transactions, parties to the transactions,dates, times, and/or locations associated with the transactions, etc.),loan information associated with the seller (e.g., previous loans madeto the seller, previous defaults on said loans, etc.), risk informationassociated with the seller (e.g., indications of risk, instances offraud, chargebacks, etc.), appointments information (e.g., previousappointments, upcoming (scheduled) appointments, timing of appointments,lengths of appointments, etc.), payroll information (e.g., employees,payroll frequency, payroll amounts, etc.), employee information,reservations data (e.g., previous reservations, upcoming (scheduled)reservations, interactions associated with such reservations, etc.),inventory data, buyer service data, etc. The seller profile can securelystore bank account information as provided by the seller. Further, theseller profile can store payment information associated with a paymentinstrument linked to a stored balance of the seller, such as a storedbalance maintained in a ledger by the service provider 1412.

Buyer profiles can store buyer data including, but not limited to, buyerinformation (e.g., name, phone number, address, banking information,etc.), buyer preferences (e.g., learned or buyer-specified), purchasehistory data (e.g., identifying one or more items purchased (andrespective item information), payment instruments used to purchase oneor more items, returns associated with one or more orders, statuses ofone or more orders (e.g., preparing, packaging, in transit, delivered,etc.), etc.), appointments data (e.g., previous appointments, upcoming(scheduled) appointments, timing of appointments, lengths ofappointments, etc.), payroll data (e.g., employers, payroll frequency,payroll amounts, etc.), reservations data (e.g., previous reservations,upcoming (scheduled) reservations, reservation duration, interactionsassociated with such reservations, etc.), inventory data, buyer servicedata, etc.

In at least one example, the account(s), described above with referenceto FIGS. 1 and 2 , can include or be associated with the seller profilesand/or buyer profiles described above.

Furthermore, in at least one example, the data store(s) 1544 can storeinventory database(s) and/or catalog database(s). As described above, aninventory can store data associated with a quantity of each item that aseller has available to the seller. The records described above can bestored in the inventory data store. Furthermore, a catalog can storedata associated with items that a seller has available for acquisition.The data store(s) 1544 can store additional or alternative types of dataas described herein.

The phrases “in some examples,” “according to various examples,” “in theexamples shown,” “in one example,” “in other examples,” “variousexamples,” “some examples,” and the like generally mean the particularfeature, structure, or characteristic following the phrase is includedin at least one example of the present invention, and may be included inmore than one example of the present invention. In addition, suchphrases do not necessarily refer to the same examples or to differentexamples.

If the specification states a component or feature “can,” “may,”“could,” or “might” be included or have a characteristic, thatparticular component or feature is not required to be included or havethe characteristic.

Further, the aforementioned description is directed to devices andapplications that are related to payment technology. However, it will beunderstood, that the technology can be extended to any device andapplication. Moreover, techniques described herein can be configured tooperate irrespective of the kind of payment object reader, POS terminal,web applications, mobile applications, POS topologies, payment cards,computer networks, and environments.

Various figures included herein are flowcharts showing example methodsinvolving techniques as described herein. The methods illustrated aredescribed with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 14, and 15 for convenience andease of understanding. However, the methods illustrated are not limitedto being performed using components described in FIGS. 1, 2, 14 , and15, and such components are not limited to performing the methodsillustrated herein.

Furthermore, the methods described above are illustrated as collectionsof blocks in logical flow graphs, which represent sequences ofoperations that can be implemented in hardware, software, or acombination thereof. In the context of software, the blocks representcomputer-executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readablestorage media that, when executed by processor(s), perform the recitedoperations. Generally, computer-executable instructions includeroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and the likethat perform particular functions or implement particular abstract datatypes. The order in which the operations are described is not intendedto be construed as a limitation, and any number of the described blockscan be combined in any order and/or in parallel to implement theprocesses. In some embodiments, one or more blocks of the process can beomitted entirely. Moreover, the methods can be combined in whole or inpart with each other or with other methods.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the principles of thisdisclosure and various modifications can be made by those skilled in theart without departing from the scope of this disclosure. The abovedescribed examples are presented for purposes of illustration and not oflimitation. The present disclosure also can take many forms other thanthose explicitly described herein. Accordingly, it is emphasized thatthis disclosure is not limited to the explicitly disclosed methods,systems, and apparatuses, but is intended to include variations to andmodifications thereof, which are within the spirit of the followingclaims.

As a further example, variations of apparatus or process limitations(e.g., dimensions, configurations, components, process step order, etc.)can be made to further optimize the provided structures, devices andmethods, as shown and described herein. In any event, the structures anddevices, as well as the associated methods, described herein have manyapplications. Therefore, the disclosed subject matter should not belimited to any single example described herein, but rather should beconstrued in breadth and scope in accordance with the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: determining, by one or morecomputers of a payment processing service provider, that content postedby a first user of a social media service provider indicates a sellingintent, the content including an item; analyzing, by the one or morecomputers of the payment processing service provider, a plurality ofresponses to the content, wherein the plurality of responses areassociated with other users of the social media service provider;determining, by the one or more computers of the payment processingservice provider, that two or more responses of the plurality ofresponses include one or more indicators indicating a purchasing intentof two or more second users of the other users to purchase the itemdepicted in the content; selecting, by the one or more computers of thepayment processing service provider, a second user of the two or moresecond users based at least in part on a criterion; and sending, fromthe one or more computers of the payment processing service provider andto a computing device operable by the second user of the one or moresecond users, an offer to purchase the item.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein analyzing comprises using a machine-trained mechanism.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the selecting comprises ranking the two ormore second users, and wherein the second user is a highest-ranking userof the two or more second users.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein theoffer comprises a first offer, and the method further comprising:determining, by the one or more computers of the payment processingservice provider, that the second user does not accept the offer withina predetermined period of time; and sending, by the one or morecomputers of the payment processing service provider and to a computingdevice operable by a third user of the one or more second users, asecond offer to purchase the item, wherein the third user is a secondhighest-ranking user of the two or more second users.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the criterion comprises one or more of a first-in-timeresponse, a highest bid, past interactions with the first user, or ascore associated with the two or more second users.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the offer is valid for a predetermined period of time.7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the one ormore computers of the payment processing service provider, that thesecond user accepts the offer within a predetermined period of time; andprocessing, by the one or more computers of the payment processingservice provider, a payment associated with a transaction for the item.8. A system comprising: one or more processors; and one or morecomputer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by theone or more processors, cause the system to perform operationscomprising: determining that content posted by a first user of a socialmedia service provider indicates a selling intent, the content includingan item; determining that two or more responses include one or moreindicators indicating a purchasing intent of two or more second users topurchase the item depicted in the content; and based at least in part ondetermining the two or more responses include the one or moreindicators, sending, to a computing device operable by a second user ofthe one or more second users, an offer to purchase the item.
 9. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein the two or more responses are determinedbased at least in part on analyzing responses to the content, whereinthe responses are associated with other users of the social mediaservice provider.
 10. The system of claim 8, the operations furthercomprising: selecting, based at least in part on ranking the two or moresecond users based at least in part on a criterion, the second user ofthe two or more second users, wherein the second user is ahighest-ranking user of the two or more second users; and sending theoffer to the second user.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein thecriterion comprises one or more of a first-in-time response, a highestbid, past interactions with the first user, or a score associated withthe two or more second users.
 12. The system of claim 10, wherein theoffer comprises a first offer, the operations further comprising:determining that the second user does not accept the offer within apredetermined period of time; and sending, to a computing deviceoperable by a third user of the one or more second users, a second offerto purchase the item.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein the offer isvalid for a predetermined period of time.
 14. The system of claim 8, theoperations further comprising: determining that the second user acceptsthe offer within a predetermined period of time; and processing apayment associated with a transaction for the item.
 15. One or morecomputer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by oneor more processors, cause a system to perform operations comprising:determining that content posted by a first user of a social mediaservice provider indicates a selling intent, the content including anitem; determining that two or more responses include one or moreindicators indicating a purchasing intent of two or more second users topurchase the item depicted in the content; and based at least in part ondetermining the two or more responses include the one or moreindicators, sending, to a computing device operable by a second user ofthe one or more second users, an offer to purchase the item.
 16. The oneor more computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the offer is validfor a predetermined period of time.
 17. The one or morecomputer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the two or more responsesare determined based at least in part on analyzing responses to thecontent, wherein the responses are associated with other users of thesocial media service provider.
 18. The one or more computer-readablemedia of claim 17, wherein the analyzing comprises using amachine-trained mechanism.
 19. The one or more computer-readable mediaof claim 15, the operations further comprising: selecting, based atleast in part on ranking the two or more second users based at least inpart on a criterion, the second user of the two or more second users,wherein the second user is a highest-ranking user of the two or moresecond users; and sending the offer to the second user.
 20. The one ormore computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the criterioncomprises one or more of a first-in-time response, a highest bid, pastinteractions with the first user, or a score associated with the two ormore second users.